"God knows," said Seth, with his hand resting lightly on Sally's shoulder. "If you or me could do anything to make it a blessing we'd do it, if it brought upon us the hardest sacrifice that ever fell upon human beings. I say that of myself, and I know it of you. But I'm a man, with a wider experience than yours, and I can see further. Feeling is one thing, fact is another. To put feeling aside when we talk of our Duchess is out of the question; but let us see how far fact goes, and what it will lead us to." He looked down upon his garments with a curious smile; they were old and patched and patched again. Sally, with apprehension in her glance, followed his observance of himself. Then, with an expression of pity and reverence, he turned to Sally, and touched her frock, which was worn and faded. "Your only frock, Sally," he said. "What of that?" she exclaimed, with a rebellious ring in her voice. "It's good enough for me." "We've got to see this through," he returned, taking her hand in his, and patting it so gently that her head drooped before him. "You wouldn't fetch much at Rag Fair, my girl. All that belongs to you, on and off, would fetch, perhaps--three farthings. Now let us look at something else." "Daddy, Daddy!" she cried, as she walked to the dark end of the cellar; "what are you going to do?" He replied by dragging forward a trunk, which he placed between Sally and himself. It was locked, and he could not raise the lid. Taking from his pocket a large bunch of keys, he tried them until he found one that fitted the lock. "I borrowed these keys of the locksmith round the corner," said Seth, as he opened the trunk; "I told him what sort of a trunk it was, and he said I'd be sure to find a key in this lot to fit it." The trunk was filled with clothes. Before laying his hand upon them, Seth, with a steady look at Sally, said: "I doubt, Sally, whether there's anybody in the world you know better than you know me." "There _is_ no one, Daddy." "It has been a pleasure to me to believe that you love me." "There's only one I love better than you, Daddy.' "Our Duchess." "Yes." "But in addition to love, you have some other feeling with respect to me. Shall I try to put it in words?" "If you please, Daddy." "From what you know of me, you know I would not be guilty of a mean or dirty action. You know that I would sooner have my hands cut off than give anyone the power to say, 'Seth Dumbrick, you are a scoundrel and a sneak.'" "I am certain of it, Daddy."