"But couldn't you work just as well in your home, darling?

"People don't pay anything for home work. You must see what I mean,
Arthur."

"Yes, I see," he replied tenderly; but after a moment's thought, he
went on again with the gentle obstinacy of a man whose thinking had all
been done for him before he was born. "I wish, though, that you would
try to hold out a little longer, working at home with your mother. In a
year or two we shall be able to marry."

"I couldn't," said Gabriella, shaking her head. "Don't urge me, Arthur."

"If you would only consent to live with mother, we might marry now," he
pursued, after a minute, as if he had not heard her.

"But it wouldn't be fair to her, and how could I ask her to take mother
and Jane and the children? No, I've thought it all out, dear, and I must
go to work."

"But I'll work for them, Gabriella. I'll do anything on earth rather
than see you ordered about by old Brandywine."

"He won't order me about," answered Gabriella cheerfully; "but mother
feels just as you do. She says I am going out of my class because I
won't stay at home and work buttonholes."

"You couldn't go out of your class," replied Arthur, with an instinctive
gallantry which even his distress could not overcome; "but I can't get