you go on thus? To what! Jasper Losely," she continued, sharply,
eagerly, clasping her hands, "hear me: I have an income, not large, it is
true, but assured; you have nothing but what, as you say, you may lose
to-morrow; share my income! Fulfil your solemn promises: marry me. I
will forget whose daughter that girl is; I will be a mother to her. And
for yourself, give me the right to feel for you again as I once did, and
I may find a way to raise you yet,--higher than you can raise yourself.
I have some wit, Jasper, as you know. At the worst you shall have the
pastime, I the toil. In your illness I will nurse you: in your joys I
will intrude no share. Whom else can you marry? to whom else could you
confide? who else could--"

She stopped short as if an adder had stung her, uttering a shriek of
rage, of pain; for Jasper Losely, who had hitherto listened to her,
stupefied, astounded, here burst into a fit of merriment, in which there
was such undisguised contempt, such an enjoyment of the ludicrous,
provoked by the idea of the marriage pressed upon him, that the insult
pierced the woman to her very soul.

Continuing his laugh, despite that cry of wrathful agony it had caused,
Jasper rose, holding his sides, and surveying himself in the glass, with
very different feelings at the sight from those that had made his
companion's gaze there a few minutes before so mournful.

"My dear good friend," he said, composing himself at last, and wiping his
eyes, "excuse me, but really when you said whom else could I marry--ha!
ha!--it did seem such a capital joke! Marry you, my fair Crane! No: put
that idea out of your head; we know each other too well for conjugal
felicity. You love me now: you always did, and always will; that is,
while we are not tied to each other. Women who once love me, always love