I had often wondered why I never dared ask Hilda Wade one question that was nearest my heart.

I think it must have been because I respected her so profoundly.

The deeper your admiration and respect for a woman, the harder you find it in the end to ask her.

At last I ALMOST made up my mind.

"I cannot think," I began, "what can have induced a girl like you, with means and friends, with brains and"-- I drew back, then I plumped it out--"beauty, to take to such a life as this--a life which seems, in many ways, so unworthy of you!" She stirred the fire more pensively than ever, and rearranged the muffin-dish on the little wrought-iron stand in font of the grate.