hospitable to a robber."

Lesbia pinched his chin. "You silly boy, my father doesn't think so much of me as you do. I sometimes wonder," she went on sadly, "if he loves me at all. I am very much alone."

"He doesn't treat you badly?" demanded George with sudden heat.

"No, dear, no. I shouldn't allow anyone to treat me badly, not even my father. But I fancy he regards me as a necessary trouble, for sometimes he looks at me in a disagreeable way as though he fancied I was spying."

"Why do you use so disagreeable a word?" asked the straightforward clerk.

"My father used it himself in the first instance," she rejoined promptly; "perhaps because he doesn't want anyone else to meet the queer people who come to see him,--generally after dark. Men who smell of drink, who use slang and dress like grooms,--certainly not gentlemen. Of course I never talk to them, for when they appear, my father always sends me to my room. I'm sure," sighed the girl dolefully, "that if it wasn't for old Tim, the servant, I should be quite alone."

George hugged her. "You shall never be alone again!" he whispered, and Lesbia threw her arms round his neck with great contentment.

"Oh, darling, you don't know how good that sounds to me. If it were only true. You see, my father may object."

"He can object until he is tired," cried the ardent lover. "If he does not make you happy I must. And when he sees this----"

"Oh!" Lesbia clasped her hand in delight at the sight of a cheap turquoise ring, "how lovely!"

George frowned at the mean gift. "It was all I could afford," said he.

"It is all I want," she said, as he slipped it on her engagement finger, "it's not the cost, or even the thing. It's what it means. Love and joy to you and me, dearest boy."

But George, having a generous heart, still lamented. "If I hadn't to keep my mother," he said ruefully. "I would save up and give you diamonds. But two hundred a year goes a very little way with my mother, even when her own small income is added. You see, dear, she never forgets that my father was the Honourable Aylmer Walker, and she will insist upon having everything of the best. This is a beastly cheap ring, but--but----"

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