This amusement is generally mere vanity and
selfishness. But there are autobiographies
we like to listen to, because they are natural
and unselfish, and extorted, as it were,
because we have a sympathy to extend to them.

"After all this egotism," he said at the
end, when the fiery letters, " WELCOME TO
THE ROYAL ST. ARTHUR'S " were burning
out, and after some erratic squibbing and
pyrotechnical spluttering, all was darkness
and silence, " after all this egotism, what
can it be to you whether this be my turn of
mind? Whether I be cold or calculating,
or when once deceived, never let myself be
deceived again? Whether if I suspected
anything in, say, a person who was my
wife, I would disdain to question, to ask for
explanation, but work the thing out for myself,
independent of all, as if I were alone in
the world? I say, what is this to any one?
But there you have my creed, such as it is."

"I understand you now," she said,
"perfectly; and may I confess, too, that I
can admire such a character."

"And you really do? And you admire
this standing alone, as it were, this having
one's own for everything  —opinion, counsel,
judgment—no appeal: a blind unswerving
confidence in oneself, not as a safe guide
by any means, but one more suited to me
than any other could be? There is self-
sufliciency for you!"

"And, of course, you despise women
above all!" she said warmly, though he
could not see her cheeks kindling.

"I shall conceal nothing from you," he
went on, " that is, if you still care to
listen——-"

"Care to listen!" and her foot stamped,
"I should tell you so if I did not. I like
to listen, though I know I shall not like
what you tell me. But the vapid fools my
father brings to the house, and who talk in
their insipid way of women—  girls whose
one thought is worth their whole nature
you won't tell me that you think with them?"

"I shall tell you the truth. What the
only being in the world that ever loved
me left to me as her treasure and jewel box.
I am an old man now, as the world goes,
thirty years old and odd, and during those
years it is inconceivable the picture of
female character that has passed before me.
Not before me, but before Lord Formanton's
son and heir. The history of adulation and
abasement that I could give would be incredible.
I am ashamed of myself, and of
them, when I think of it. Miss Bailey is
almost the first I have met who disdains such
behaviour, or, perhaps," he added, laughing,
"does not think me worth the trouble."

Here broke in the rude voice of the
Doctor: " I think we must ask you for the
boat, Mr. Conway. This has been all very
pleasant. And we shall certainly come by
daylight and see your nice vessel."

The Doctor got down into the boat with
difficulty and grumbling. "Such an
inconvenient sort of arrangement." He felt
cold about his great neck, and took his
daughter's cloak as a sort of muffler, in
which he looked very grotesque.

In her own room Jessica sat long, before
going to bed, ruminating softly, and smiling
to herself, and finally walking up and
down, and talking to herself, with a sort
of exultation and forecasting of the future.

"I see it," she said, "I see it coming.
He shall love me—nay, does love me!
I know it, plainly and truly, as if it
were a revelation, that he came into
this world for me; that I shall fill up
for him that blank, desolate corner in
his existence which for years has been
before his weary eyes. Yes, all this was
foreordained. As he told me his story—
and, oh! how he told it —could I not see
my own place, and could have cried out, ' I
should have been there!' He begins to see
it, too. It is what I have been waiting for,
and what he has been waiting for! And
he will ask me, I know, to be his. It is
coming, as surely as to-morrow is coming."

In came her maid, and Jessica almost
smiled at her own excitement. So that
eventful day ended.

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