’Yes,—­I suppose we are prospering.  It is one of those hazardous things in which a man can never tell whether he be really prosperous till he is out of it.  I fell into it altogether against my will.  I had no alternative.’

‘It seems to me to have been a golden chance.’

‘As far as immediate results go it has been golden.’

’That at any rate is well, Paul.  And now,—­now that we have got back into our old way of talking, tell me what all this means.  I have talked to no one after this fashion since we parted.  Why should our engagement be over?  You used to love me, did you not?’

He would willingly have left her question unanswered, but she waited for an...