
of course under no misconception regarding this young lady's visits. Jasper was
at home, and working. He had but to look at Marian to see that something
wretched had been going on at her home; naturally he supposed it the result of
his letter to Mr Yule.
    »Your father has been behaving brutally,« he said, holding her hands and
gazing anxiously at her.
    »There is something far worse than that, Jasper.«
    »Worse?«
    She threw off her outdoor things, then took the fatal letter from her pocket
and handed it to him. Jasper gave a whistle of consternation, and looked
vacantly from the paper to Marian's countenance.
    »How the deuce comes this about?« he exclaimed. »Why, wasn't your uncle
aware of the state of things?«
    »Perhaps he was. He may have known that the legacy was a mere form.«
    »You are the only one affected?«
    »So father says. It's sure to be the case.«
    »This has upset you horribly, I can see. Sit down, Marian. When did the
letter come?«
    »This morning.«
    »And you have been fretting over it all day. But come, we must keep up our
courage; you may get something substantial out of the scoundrels still.«
    Even whilst he spoke his eyes wandered absently. On the last word his voice
failed, and he fell into abstraction. Marian's look was fixed upon him, and he
became conscious of it. He tried to smile.
    »What were you writing?« she asked, making involuntary diversion from the
calamitous theme.
    »Rubbish for the Will-o'-the-Wisp. Listen to this paragraph about English
concert audiences.«
    It was as necessary to him as to her to have a respite before the graver
discussion began. He seized gladly the opportunity she offered, and read several
pages of manuscript, slipping from one topic to another. To hear him one would
have supposed that he was in his ordinary mood; he laughed at his own jokes and
points.
    »They'll have to pay me more,« was the remark with which he closed. »I only
wanted to make myself indispensable to them, and at the end of this year I shall
feel pretty sure of that. They'll have to give me two guineas a column; by Jove!
they will.«
    »And you may hope for much more than that, mayn't you, before long?«
    »Oh, I
