'His heart is at his office, his heart is _always_ there.' "'Oh, Mr. Macassar, is that you?' she exclaimed. She struggled to rise, but, finding herself unequal to the effort, she sank back again on a chair, dropped her lute on a soft footstool, and then buried her face in her hands. It was dreadful for Macassar to witness such agony. "'Is anything the matter?' said he. "'The matter!' said she. 'Ah! ah!' "'I hope you are not sick?' said he. "'Sick!' said she. 'Well, I fear I am very sick.' "'What is it?' said he. 'Perhaps only bilious,' he suggested. "'Oh! oh! oh!' said she. "'I see I'm in the way; and I think I had better go,' and so he prepared to depart. 'No! no! no!' said she, jumping up from her chair. 'Oh! Mr. Macassar, don't be so cruel. Do you wish to see me sink on the carpet before your feet?' "Macassar denied the existence of any such wish; and said that he humbly begged her pardon if he gave any offence. "'Offence!' said she, smiling sweetly on him; sweetly, but yet sadly. 'Offence! no--no offence. Indeed, I don't know how you could--but never mind--I am such a silly thing. One's feelings will sometimes get the better of one; don't you often find it so?' "'O yes! quite so,' said Macassar. 'I think it's the heat.' "'He's a downright noodle,' said Crinoline's mamma to her sister-in-law, who lived with them. The two were standing behind a chink in the door, which separated the drawing-room from a chamber behind it. "'Won't you sit down, Mr. Macassar?' Macassar sat down. 'Mamma will be so sorry to miss you again. She's calling somewhere in Grosvenor Square, I believe. She wanted me to go with her; but I could not bring myself to go with her to-day. It's useless for the body to go out, when the heart still remains at home. Don't you find it so?' "'Oh, quite so,' said Macassar. The cherry-brandy had already evaporated before the blaze of all that beauty, and he was bethinking himself how he might best take himself off. Let the hospital have the filthy lucre! He would let the money go, and would show the world that he loved for the sake of love alone! He looked at his watch, and found that it was already past two. "Crinoline, when she saw that watch, knew that something must be done at once. She appreciated more fully than her lover did the value of this world's goods; and much as she doubtless sympathized with the wants of the hospital in question, she felt that charity should begin at home. So she fairly burst out into a flood of tears. "Macassar was quite beside himself. He had seen her weep before, but never with such frightful violence. She rushed up from her chair, and passing so close to him as nearly to upset him by the waft of her petticoats, threw herself on to an ottoman, and hiding her face on the stump in the middle of it, sobbed and screeched, till Macassar feared that the buttons behind her dress would crack and fly off. "'Oh! oh! oh!' sobbed Crinoline.