formal attire? And what man who has been so favoured has not loved her
who has so favoured him, even though he may not previously have been
enamoured as deeply as poor Will Belton?

'This is so good of you,' he said.

'I wish I knew how to be good to you,' she answered not meaning to
trench upon dangerous ground, but feeling, as the words came from her,
that she had done so. 'You have been so good to us, so very good to
papa, that we owe you everything. I am so grateful to you for saying
that you will come back at Christmas.'

He had resolved that he would refrain from further love-making till the
winter; but he found it very hard to refrain when so addressed. To take
her in his arms, and kiss her twenty times, and swear that he would
never let her go to claim her at once savagely as his own, that was the
line of conduct to which temptation prompted him. How could she look at
him so sweetly, how could she stand before him, ministering to him with
all her pretty maidenly charms brought so close to him, without
intending that he should love her? But he did refrain. 'Blood is
thicker than water,' said he. 'That's the real reason why I first came.'

'I understand that quite, and it is that feeling that makes you so
good. But I'm afraid you are spending a great deal of money here and
all for our sakes.'

'Not at all. I shall get my money back again. And if I didn't, what
then? I've plenty of money. it is not money that I want.'

She could not ask him what it was that he did want, and she was obliged