intense gratification from the offer—­so much so that she would have been almost consoled for her husband’s ruin; but she would have scolded her lover, and would have explained to him the great iniquity of which he was guilty.  It was clear to him that at this present time he could not make any special terms with her as to Clara Van Siever.  At such a moment as this he could hardly ask her to keep out of the way, in order that he might have his opportunity.  But when he suggested that probably it might be better, in the present emergency, to give up the idea of any further sitting in her room, and proposed to send for his canvas, colour-box, and easel, she told him that, as far as she was concerned, he was welcome to have that one other sitting for which they had all bargained.  ’You had better come tomorrow, as we had agreed,’ she said; ’and unless I shall have been turned out into the street by the creditors, you may have the room as you did before.  And you must remember, Conway, that though Mrs Van Siever says that Musselboro is to have Clara, it doesn’t follow that Clara should give way.’  When we consider everything, we must acknowledge that this was, at any rate, good-natured.  Then there was a tender parting, with many tears, and Conway Dalrymple escaped from the house.

He did not for a moment doubt the truth of the story which Mrs Broughton had told, as far, at least, as it referred to the ruin of Dobbs Broughton.  He had heard something of this before, and for some weeks had expected that a crash was coming.  Broughton’s rise had been very sudden, and Dalrymple had never regarded his friend as firmly placed in the commercial world.  Dobbs was one of those men who seem born to surprise the world by a spurt of prosperity, and might, perhaps, have a second spurt, or even a third, could he have kept himself from drinking in the morning.  But Dalrymple, though he was hardly astonished by the story, as it regarded Broughton, was put out by that part of it which had reference to Musselboro.  He had known that Musselboro had been introduced to Broughton by Mrs Van Siever, but, nevertheless, he had regarded the man as being nor more than Broughton’s clerk.  And now he was told that Musselboro was to marry Clara Van Siever, and have all Mrs Van Siever’s money.  He resolved, at last, that he would run his risk about the money, and take Clara either with or without it, if she would have him.  And as for that difficulty in asking her, if Mrs Broughton would give him no opportunity of putting the question behind her back, he would put it before her face.  He had not much leisure for consideration on these points, as the next day was the day for the last sitting.