I imagined Naples with a rather different sky." Miriam motioned towards a chair, and looked drearily from the window at the dreary sea.

Neither spoke again for two or three minutes.

Reuben Elgar surveyed the room, but inattentively.
"What is it you want of me ?" Miriam asked, facing him abruptly.
"Want?
You hint that I have come to ask you for money ?" "I shouldn't have thought it impossible.

If you were in need--you spoke of a third-class journey--I am, at all events, the natural person for your thoughts to turn to." Reuben laughed dispiritedly.
"No, no, Miriam; I haven't quite got to that.

You are the very last person I should think of in such a case." "Why ?" "Simply because I am not quite so contemptible as you think me.