I can accept nothing from you but the sympathy which it is your nature to give to all who need it." "I do indeed sympathise with you; but it seems so hard that you will not consent to make some use of all that money which is lying idle.

It would make me so happy if I could think it were useful to you; but I dare not say any more.

I have said too much already, perhaps; only I hope you will not think very badly of me for having acted on impulse in this way." "Think badly of you, my dear kind soul! What can I think, except that you are one of the most generous of women ?" "And about these other troubles, Mr.Saltram, which have no relation to money matters; you will not give me your confidence ?" "There is nothing that I can confide in you, Mrs.Branston.Others are involved in the matter of which I spoke, I am not free to talk about it." Poor Adela felt herself repulsed at every point.

It seemed very hard.
Had she been mistaken about this man all the time?
mistaken and deluded in those old happy days during her husband's lifetime, when he had been so constant a visitor at the river-side villa, and had seemed exactly what a man might seem who cherished a tenderness which he dared not reveal in the present, but which in a brighter future might blossom into the full-blown flower of love?
"And now about your own affairs, my dear Mrs.Branston ?" John Saltram said with a forced cheerfulness, drawing his chain up to the table and assuming a business-like manner.

"These tiresome letters of your lawyers'; let me see what use I can be in the matter." Adela Branston produced the letters with rather an absent air.