
    »He will refuse to countenance your marriage?«
    »I shall disappoint him and grieve him bitterly. He has asked me to use my
money in starting a new review.«
    »Which he is to edit?«
    »Yes. Do you think there would be any hope of its success?«
    Jasper shook his head.
    »Your father is not the man for that, Marian. I don't say it
disrespectfully; I mean that he doesn't seem to me to have that kind of
aptitude. It would be a disastrous speculation.«
    »I felt that. Of course I can't think of it now.«
    She smiled, raising her face to his.
    »Don't trouble,« said Jasper. »Wait a little, till I have made myself
independent of Fadge and a few other men, and your father shall see how heartily
I wish to be of use to him. He will miss your help, I'm afraid?«
    »Yes. I shall feel it a cruelty when I have to leave him. He has only just
told me that his sight is beginning to fail. Oh, why didn't his brother leave
him a little money? It was such unkindness! Surely he had a much better right
than Amy, or than myself either. But literature has been a curse to father all
his life. My uncle hated it, and I suppose that was why he left father nothing.«
    »But how am I to see you often? That's the first question. I know what I
shall do. I must take new lodgings, for the girls and myself, all in the same
house. We must have two sitting-rooms; then you will come to my room without any
difficulty. These astonishing proprieties are so easily satisfied after all.«
    »You will really do that?«
    »Yes. I shall go and look for rooms to-morrow. Then when you come you can
always ask for Maud or Dora, you know. They will be very glad of a change to
more respectable quarters.«
    »I won't stay to see them now, Jasper,« said Marian, her thoughts turning to
the girls.
    »Very well. You are safe for another hour, but to make certain you shall go
at a quarter to five. Your mother won't be against us?«
    »Poor mother - no. But she won't dare to justify me before father.«
    »I feel as if I should play a mean part in leaving it
