"Well," he said at last, "you are a girl, and young, and living almost alone, and people tell me you are going to have money. You have promised to excuse my blunt way of talking out, haven't you? I almost wish for your sake, as you like to live this kind of life, that you had just enough of money to live upon and no more; but I hear that that is not the case, or at all events is not to be. Well, the only thing is that people who I think are not true, and are not honest, and who are not worthy of you in any way whatever, may try to make you think that they are true, and sincere, and all the rest of it." "Well, Mr. Heron, what if they do?" "You may perhaps be persuaded to believe them." "And even if I am, what matter is that? I had much rather be deceived in such things than know the truth, if the truth is to mean that people are all deceitful." "I don't think you want to understand me," he said. "Indeed I do; I only want to understand you; but I fail as yet. Why not speak out, Mr. Heron, like a man and a brother? If there is anything you want me to know, do please make me to know it in the clearest way." She was growing impatient. "You will have lovers," he said, driven to despair when it seemed as if she could not understand a mere hint of any kind; "of course you must know that you are attractive and all that--and if you come to have money, you will be besieged with fellows--with admirers I mean. Do be a little distrustful--of one at least; I don't like him and I wish you didn't--and I can't very well tell you why, only that he does not seem to me to be manly or even honest." She colored a little, but she also smiled faintly, for she still did not understand him. "I suppose I must know the man you mean, Mr. Heron; for I think he is the only man I ever heard you say anything against, and I have not forgotten. But what can have made you think that I needed any lecture about him? I don't suppose he ever thought about me in that way in his life, or would marry one of my birth and my bringing up even if I asked him. And in any case, Mr. Heron, I would not marry him even if he asked me. But what a shame it seems to arrange in advance for the refusing of a man who never showed the faintest intention of making an offer." At first Heron did not quite understand her. Then he suddenly caught her meaning. "Oh, that fellow? I didn't mean him. I never could have supposed that you were likely to be taken in by him." "To do him justice, Mr. Heron, he never seems to have any thought of taking any one in. Such as he is he always shows himself, I think." "Oh, I don't care about him----" "Nor I, Mr. Heron, I assure you. But whom then do you care about--in that sense?"