that to-night."

"I don't pretend to much wisdom. If I had had another sovereign in
my pocket, no doubt I should have given it you before this, and you
wouldn't have refused it."

"How do you know?" she asked sharply. "Why should you think me
selfish?"

"Certainly I have no reason to. And by the by, I already owe you
money for the supper. I will send it you to-morrow."

"Why not bring it?"

"Better not. I have a good deal of an unpleasant quality which
people call pride, and I don't care to make myself uncomfortable
unnecessarily."

"You can't have more pride than I have. Look." She held out her
hands. "Will you be my friend, really my friend? You understand me?"

"I think I understand, but I doubt whether it is possible."

"Everything is possible. Will you shake hands with me, and, when you
come to see me again, let us meet as if I were a modest girl, and
you had got to know me in a respectable house, and not in the street
at midnight?"

"You really wish it? You are not joking?"