“It is all gone.”

“Let that be as it may, we’ll try it. But though it should be all gone, every shilling of it, still, will you be my wife?”

It was altogether a new phase, and one that was inexplicable to her. And this came from a man to whom she had once thought that she might bring herself to give her hand and her heart, and her money also. She did not doubt that if she took him at his word he would be good to her, and provide her with shelter, and food and raiment, as he had promised her. Her heart was softened towards him, and she forgot his gloves and his shining boots. But she could not bring herself to say that she would love him, and be his wife. It seemed to her now that she was under the guidance of her cousin, and that she was pledged to do nothing of which he would disapprove. He would not approve of her accepting the hand of a man who would be resolved to litigate this matter with him.

“It cannot be,” she said. “I feel how generous you are, but it cannot be.”

“And why shouldn’t it be?”

“Oh, Mr Rubb, there are things one cannot explain.”

“Margaret, think of it. How are you to do better?”

“Perhaps not; probably not. In many ways I am sure I could not do better. But it cannot be.”

Not then, nor for the next twenty minutes, but at last he took his answer and went. He did this when he found that he had no more minutes to spare if he intended to return by the 5.45 train. Then, with an angry gesture of his head, he left her, and hurried across to the front door. Then, as he went out, Mr John Ball came in.

“Good evening, sir,” said Mr Rubb. “I am Mr Samuel Rubb. I have just been seeing Miss Mackenzie, on business. Good evening, sir.”

John Ball said never a word, and Samuel Rubb hurried across the grounds to the railway station.

Chapter XX.
Showing How the Third Lover Behaved

“What has that man been here for?” Those were the first words which Mr Ball spoke to his cousin after shutting the hall-door behind Mr Rubb’s back. When the door was closed he turned round and saw Margaret as she was coming out of the dining-room, and in a voice that sounded to her as though he were angry, asked her the above question.

“He came to see me, John,” said Miss Mackenzie, going back into the dining-room. “He was my brother’s partner.”

“He said he came upon business; what business could he have?”

It was not very easy for her to tell him what had been Mr Rubb’s business. She had no wish to keep anything secret from her cousin, but she did not know how to describe the scene which had just taken place, or how to acknowledge that the man had come there to ask her to marry him.