’But wasn’t it all decided between us?  Didn’t you repeat it in your letter?’

‘Yes—­I know—­but I didn’t think it would come so soon.’

‘We won’t talk about it to-night,’ said Tarrant firmly.  ’For one thing, there’s no time.  Come closer to the fire, and get warm through; then I must see you home.’

Nancy hung her head.  When, in a few moments, she looked up again, it was to say drily: 

‘There’s no need for you to see me home.’

‘I’m going to, at all events.’

’Why?  You don’t care much about me.  I might as well be run over—­ or anything—­’

To this remark no sort of answer was vouchsafed.  Nancy sat with her feet on the fender, and Tarrant kept up a great blaze with chips, which sputtered out their moisture before they began to crackle.  He and she both seemed intent on this process of combustion.

‘Now you’re quite warm,’ said the young man, as if speaking to a child, ‘and it’s time to go.’

Nancy rose obediently, gazed at him with dreaming eyes, and suffered herself to be led away by the arm.  In Chancery Lane, Tarrant hailed a crawling hansom.  When they were driving rapidly southward, Nancy began to question him about the date of his departure; she learnt that he might be gone in less than a week.

’If you could behave quietly and sensibly, we would have an evening to make final arrangements.’

‘I can,’ she answered, with a calm that surprised him.  ’If you go without letting me see you again, I don’t know what I might do.  But I can be as sensible as you are, if I’m treated fairly.’

He grasped her hand.

’Remember, dear girl, that I have a good deal to worry me just now.  Do you suppose I leave you with a light heart?’

‘If you can persuade me that you care—­’

’I care a good deal more than I can easily say.  Your position is a very hard one,—­harder than mine.  But I’m going away to work for your future.  I see clearly that it’s the best thing I could do.  Whether Vawdrey’s ideas come to anything or not, I shall make profit out of the journey; I mean to write,—­I think it’s all I can do to any purpose,—­and the material I shall get together over there will give me a start.  Don’t think I am cold-hearted because I talk in this way; if I broke down, so much the worse for both of us.  The time has come for serious work.’

‘But we shan’t lose my money.  I’ve made up my mind we shan’t.’

’It’s impossible for you to guard against every danger.  We must be prepared for the worst, and that responsibility rests on me.  Try and keep your mind at ease; whatever happens, to protect you is my duty, and I shall not fail in it.’

Speaking thus, Tarrant felt the glow of virtue.  His words were perfectly sincere, but had reference to a future which his thoughts left comfortably vague.