 I shouldn't be surprised if that were found necessary,« replied her
brother caustically. He was able now to give vent to the feeling which in
Marian's presence was suppressed, partly out of consideration for her, and
partly owing to her influence.
    »And shall we have to go back to our old lodgings again?« inquired Maud.
    Jasper gave no answer, but kicked a footstool savagely out of his way and
paced the room.
    »Oh, do you think we need?« said Dora, with unusual protest against economy.
    »Remember that it's a matter for your own consideration,« Jasper replied at
length. »You are living on your own resources, you know.«
    Maud glanced at her sister, but Dora was preoccupied.
    »Why do you prefer to stay here?« Jasper asked abruptly of the younger girl.
    »It is so very much nicer,« she replied with some embarrassment.
    He bit the ends of his moustache, and his eyes glared at the impalpable
thwarting force that to imagination seemed to fill the air about him.
    »A lesson against being over-hasty,« he muttered, again kicking the
footstool.
    »Did you make that considerate remark to Marian?« asked Maud.
    »There would have been no harm if I had done. She knows that I shouldn't
have been such an ass as to talk of marriage without the prospect of something
to live upon.«
    »I suppose she's wretched?« said Dora.
    »What else can you expect?«
    »And did you propose to release her from the burden of her engagement?« Maud
inquired.
    »It's a confounded pity that you're not rich, Maud,« replied her brother
with an involuntary laugh. »You would have a brilliant reputation for wit.«
    He walked about and ejaculated splenetic phrases on the subject of his
ill-luck.
    »We are here, and here we must stay,« was the final expression of his mood.
»I have only one superstition that I know of, and that forbids me to take a step
backward. If I went into poorer lodgings again I should feel it was inviting
defeat. I shall stay as long as the position is tenable. Let us get on to
Christmas, and then see how things look. Heavens! Suppose we had married, and
after that lost the money!«
    »You would have been no worse off than plenty of literary men,« said Dora.
    »Perhaps not. But as I have made up my mind to
