In view of his own instantaneous success he tried to persuade Jane
to go on the stage; but Jane had no artistic ambitions, to say
nothing of her disinclination to paint her face. She preferred the
prosaic reality of stenography and typewriting. No sphere could be
too dazzling for Paul; he was born to great things, the
consciousness of his high destiny being at once her glory and her
despair; but, as regards herself, her outlook on life was cool and
sober. Paul was peacock born; it was for him to strut about in
iridescent plumage. She was a humble daw and knew her station. It
must be said that Paul held out the stage as a career more on
account of the social status that it would give to Jane than through
a belief in her histrionic possibilities. He too, fond as he was of
the girl with whom he had grown up, recognized the essential
difference between them. She was as pretty, as sensible, as helpful
a little daw as ever chattered; but the young peacock never for an
instant forgot her daw-dom.

Jane's profound common-sense reaped its reward the following spring
when she found herself obliged to earn her livelihood. 'Her mother
died, and the shop was sold, and an aunt in Cricklewood offered Jane
a home, on condition that she paid for her keep. This she was soon
able to do when she obtained a situation with a business firm in the
city. The work was hard and the salary small; but Jane had a brave
heart and held her head high. In her simple philosophy life was
work, and dreaming an occasional luxury. Her mother's death grieved
her deeply, for she was a girl of strong affections, and the
breaking up of her life with Paul seemed an irremediable
catastrophe.

"It's just as well," said her aunt, "that there's an end of it, or