"Surely we all heard when you went there that it would bring better things in a few years?" "You talk of years as if they were days," he said in the same tone. "Nobody denies it. When I have drudged at that disgustingly low business for half a dozen years, I shall probably be fifty pounds a year better off than I am now, and by the time we are both too old to take pleasure in life we shall be able to marry, and this seems to content you perfectly." Marion caught away her hand with a sudden movement. It made him turn to look at her, and the hurt anger in her eyes brought back his usual gentleness of manner at once. He was desirous to bind all her feelings on his side, and he knew her well enough to be aware that his shortest means of doing this was to revert to the wretchedness of his position. "Forgive me, dearest," he said; "you don't know what a poor wretch a man becomes when he grinds along in one eternal round of small miseries. It is such a horrible separation from you all. And what is the good of being old Tregennas's heir, if he can't put his hand into his pocket and let me live like a gentleman?" "He promised that, did he not, Marmaduke?" "It depends upon what you call promising. He is not the man to say out honestly, `Marmaduke Lee, you're my heir, and I'll give you a fit allowance till you come into the property.' If he had, I should not be as I am. But he said quite enough. Of course I am his heir. There isn't a Jew in the country but would lend me a few thousands on the chance. Of course I am his heir. I wish you would make your father understand, and then he might allow us to consider ourselves engaged; at present it's like dropping a poor wretch into a pit, and blocking up his one glimpse of blue sky. I tell you, Marion, again, I cannot endure this state of things any longer. I've not got it in me to toil on in that dirty hole without so much as an atom of hope to cheer one." They were both silent for an instant, and then Marion cried out passionately, "Toil! I would toil day and night for the joy of earning a sixpence which I could lay aside and say, `This is ours.'" There was such a swift leaping out of the love of her heart in word and eyes, that it seemed fire which must needs kindle whatever it touched, if only for a moment. But no answering glow passed across his pale face. He looked away again as if what she said had not any relation to his thoughts, and she presently continued more timidly. "Surely it would be the height of imprudence to give up your work? And you know that if you did so my father would be less than ever likely to consent to our engagement, than now when you are at least on the road to independence." "I can't go on as I am," he said, a little doggedly. "Mr Miles must give me something to hold by, or I shall throw up the whole concern. I have nearly done so a dozen times already." "Is there no way of influencing Mr Tregennas?" asked Marion, after a minute's troubled thought.