pray, what will people think of you if you have no overcoat? Without one
you will look ridiculous, and can hardly venture into the streets."

"Hush!" cried Paul, "for pity's sake, hush! for your words only prove to
me more plainly that you are like the rest of the world, and that want
of success is a pernicious crime in your eyes. You once had confidence
in me, and then you spoke in a very different strain."

"Once indeed! but then I did not know--"

"No, Rose, it was not what you were then ignorant of; but it was that in
those days you loved me."

"Great heavens! I ask you, have I left one stone unturned? Have I
not gone from publisher to publisher to sell those songs of my own
composing--those songs that you sing so well? I have endeavored to get
pupils. What fresh efforts can I try? What would _you_ do, were you in
my place? Tell me, I beg you."

And as Paul spoke, he grew more and more excited, while Rose still
maintained her manner of exasperating coolness.

"I know not," she replied, after a brief pause; "but if I were a man, I
do not think I would permit the woman, for whom I pretended that I had
the most sincere affection, to be in want of the actual necessities of
life. I would strain every effort to obtain them."

"I have no trade; I am no mechanic," broke in Paul passionately.

"Then I would learn one. Pray how much does a man earn who climbs the