more cognisant of my existence! He need
not have made love to me, or been very attentive,
but just a little—as I used to say,
just as much as to the cat!

One day Ashley came to us in a terrible
state. Even James saw that something had
happened, and I, studying his every mood
and expression as I did, knew at once that
some distress was in the background. And it
was something so new to see Ashley moved
—so strong and almost hard as he was—
that one felt it more in him than if it had
been any other man. At least I did.

"James, my good fellow!" he said, in an
excited way, " lend me five pounds, can you?
My mother is dangerously ill, and they have
written for me to go to her to-night. I
happen not to have as much money about
me at this moment, and I cannot get any
from old Campbell until I have finished my
work. He as good as bought my Herodias
Dancing yesterday, but still you know it
was not done out and out, so I could not
very well ask him for the money, could I?"

Poor Ashley! His Herodias Dancing—
one of the most hideous things you ever
saw—was no more sold to old Campbell
than I was! If Ashley could have got into
the hands of any picture- dealer whatsoever
he would have considered his fortune made.
James blushed and hesitated. Five pounds!
Ashley might as well have asked him for
five hundred. We had not five shillings in
the house; for we had had a bad week, and
I was thinking somewhat ruefully of the
short commons we should have to go upon,
and how we were to get fed at all for the
next ten days or so; and now Ashley was
in trouble too, and wanted us to help him.
James looked at me in great embarrassment.
One by one we had parted with all our little
valuables, but I had kept back one, a very
handsome pearl ring of my dear mother's,
which our father had given her on her wedding
day. This was emphatically the last
of our treasures, and I had struggled hard
and made many sacrifices to keep it.

When James looked at me so wistfully,
and when I thought of Ashley's trouble—
bis mother perhaps dying, and he her only
son, and so fond of her!—I could not help
crying; but I could not hesitate. What
had been sacred to me for my mother's
sake should be given to him for his. There
was no sacrilege in this; it was a righteous
disposition of a sacred treasure.

"I will get the money from the bank,
James," I said.

And Ashley, though he stared, was taken
in by the quiet matter-of-fact way in which
I spoke. A poor artist in Percy-street, and
a banker? Well! it was a kind of miracle,
if true; but then there are miracles yet
afloat. So I went out and pawned my ring,
and came back with the money to Ashley.
And of the two, James was decidedly the
more astonished. Ashley took the money,
said carelessly to me, " I am sorry you
have had so much trouble, Miss Mantell,"
and thanked James very warmly. When
he went away I ran up- stairs, and flinging
myself on the bed sobbed bitterly. This
precious ring—my last possession— and
James thanked for lending out of a superfluous
balance what I had procured by the
sacrifice of my best treasure! It was a
little hard; don't you think so, too, Georgie?
But I did not let my brother see what I
felt; and James, as you know, was one of
those dear good creatures who never see anything
they are not absolutely told or shown.

But I was half afraid that I had opened
the door to a good deal of discomfort in the
future; for Ashley would be sure to do
about money as he had done about the bedroom,
taking for granted that he could have
whatever he asked for, and that James
could help him with money—from that balance
at his banker's—as he could help him
with a room from his liberal arrangement
of lodging. Not that he was selfish; you
must not think that; but he was thoughtless.
Was he not an artist? and could he,
therefore, be anything but thoughtless?
Besides, he did not know the kind of
reverential feeling that both James and I
had for him, and how we would have
rather sacrificed ourselves than see him
want anything that we could get for him.

Of course Ashley believed in the banker's
balance, and, from the ease with which the
loan of five pounds had been had, assumed
that more might be had as easily; and not
long after his return from the north—for
his mother got better, against all expectation
—he asked James for another loan; this
time to enable his mother and sister to
come up to London and make a home with
him. And when he spoke of his sister—
his dear and beautiful Cora—I saw, what I
had long suspected, that one cause of my
brother's intense attachment to Ashley was
in his love for Cora. It was almost pathetic
to watch the expression that came over his
face while Ashley was speaking. If only
Cora could be brought to London! if only
he might sometimes see her!

Ashley wanted twenty pounds. If five
could only be had by pawning my ring, I
ask you, Greorgie, where could twenty come