'Sit there, please,' she said, motioning the incomer to his former place on the front seat. 'I want to talk business.' Since leaving Fort Washington she had hardly opened her lips; but now the well- remembered voice came out clear and sweet and with a ring of grave dignity. 'Am I to suppose you do not think me worthy to talk business alongside of you?' said Stuart lightly, and obeying. Wych Hazel left that question to answer itself. She was silent a minute, her hands holding each other fast. 'Mr. Nightingale,' she said, 'you once asked me if I liked to hear the truth told about myself. Do you?' 'From you!—anything,' he answered gallantly. 'Your voice never speaks harsh judgments—though I am afraid the truth about myself would be less than flattering. What is it, Mrs. Rollo? I am curious. It is said, no man knows himself.' 'I have been told,' said Wych Hazel—and she hesitated, and then went on again with quick utterance,—how intensely disagreeable it all was to her!—'I have been told this afternoon, that a year ago you wanted my fortune. Stop!—I do not care two straws whether you did or not!—But I wished to say, that upon certain conditions you can have part of it now. Think before you refuse, Mr. Nightingale. No one will ever offer you so much again—in exchange for so little.' A pause. 'I am at a loss,' he began in a changed voice, 'how any one can have induced you to believe'— And there he stopped. But Wych Hazel gave him no help. She sat looking out into the night, the gaslights flaring in from time to time upon her face. Had she grown fairer than ever? 'Everything is said about everybody,' he said haughtily after a little. 'I do not know why I should fare better than others. The _truth_ about anybody is never public report. It is assumed in the case of every woman who has a fortune, that the man who seeks her, wants it. The gentleman who has had the honour of Miss Kennedy's choice has certainly not escaped the imputation, however he may deserve it no more than I.' 'That is not business,' she said in quiet tones. 'If you please, we will discuss nothing else.' 'I am not so happy as to know of any business between us,' he said in the same haughty manner,—'great as the honour and pleasure would be.' 'It will save time,' said Wych Hazel, 'to waste none in preliminaries. I want to buy up your present bad undertaking—and the price is for you to name.'—And she looked out again into the white darkness, and wondered if this was to be her first night adventure wherein Mr. Rollo did not appear to take her home. 'Pardon me, I am very much at a loss to know what you mean. Only, through the confusion, I seem to perceive that Mrs. Rollo has lost the kind opinion which Miss Kennedy used to have of me.' He heard a soft exclamation of impatience—extremely like 'Miss Kennedy!'—Then came deliberate words again.