I thanked her heartily, and I thanked him heartily, but said I could not yet make sure of joining him as he so kindly offered. Firstly, my mind was too preoccupied to be able to take in the subject clearly. Secondly,--Yes! Secondly, there was a vague something lingering in my thoughts that will come out very near the end of this slight narrative.

     "But if you thought, Herbert, that you could, without doing any injury to your business, leave the question open for a little while--"

     "For any while," cried Herbert. "Six months, a year!"

     "Not so long as that," said I. "Two or three months at most."

     Herbert was highly delighted when we shook hands on this arrangement, and said he could now take courage to tell me that he believed he must go away at the end of the week.

     "And Clara?" said I.

     "The dear little thing," returned Herbert, "holds dutifully to her father as long as he lasts; but he won't last long. Mrs. Whimple confides to me that he is certainly going."

     "Not to say an unfeeling thing," said I, "he cannot do better than go."