"Yes," said Bella with a grimace. "I might marry a Quaker. No, dear, I intend to stay with you and marry you. I have done without my relatives for all this time, and I hope to continue doing without them." "Bella! Bella! I have nothing to offer you." "Yourself, dear. That is all I want." "A stupid gift on my part," said Cyril, looking ruefully in a near mirror at his face, which was now lean and haggard. "You have the money, and also the sympathy of the public. I can offer you nothing but a dishonoured name." "Oh, nonsense!" she said vigorously. "I won't have you talk in that way. Why, one of the newspapers referred to your father as a pioneer of Empire." Sad as he was Cyril could not help smiling. "That is just like my father's good luck," he exclaimed; "alive or dead, everything comes to him. I expect his shady doings will be overlooked, and----" "No one knows of his shady doings, dear." "Well, then, he will be looked upon as a hero. It's just as well he is buried in Marshely churchyard, for some fanatic might propose to bury him in Westminster Abbey." "You will be congratulated on having such a father." "No!" cried Cyril violently. "I won't stand that, Bella. We shall go to London next week and get married in a registry office. Miss Ankers can come with you to play propriety." Bella laughed. "I rather think Dora is so busy nursing poor Mr. Pence back to health that she has no time." "Why, you don't mean to say that she loves Pence?" "Yes and no. I won't say what may happen. She pities him for his weakness, and pity, as you know, is akin to love. Besides, only ourselves and Inspector Inglis know of the temptation to which Mr. Pence was submitted." "Why, Bella, everyone knows he saw the corpse of Huxham and held his tongue." "Yes, but everyone doesn't know that he took the one hundred pounds which he restored to me. He is looked upon as somewhat weak for not having informed the police of the crime, but on the whole people are sorry for him." "I shall be sorry, too, if a nice little woman like Miss Ankers marries such a backboneless creature." "Cyril! Cyril! have not our late troubles shown you that we must judge no one? After what we have undergone I shall never, never give an opinion about anyone again. I am sorry now that I did not behave better to poor Mrs. Vand. When my supposed father was alive I did treat her haughtily. No wonder she disliked me." "My dear," said Lister, taking her hand, "don't be too hard on yourself. You and your so-called aunt would never have got on well together." "But I might have been kinder," said Bella, almost crying; "now that she is dead and gone I feel that I might have been kinder." "How do you know that she is dead and gone?" asked Cyril, in so strange a tone that Bella, dashing the tears from her eyes, looked at him inquiringly. "She is alive," he replied to that mute interrogation. "Oh, Cyril, I am so glad! Tell me all about it."