"
"Do you think you would care for me just a bit?" Shiel asked eagerly.
"A tiny, tiny bit, perhaps," Gladys said, "but I'm not at all sure. I
can think of no one now but my father, so that if you value my good
opinion, or really want to prove your devotion to me, you must, for
the time being, devote yourself to him. Who knows--it may lie in your
power to do him some service."
"I don't see how," Shiel replied, somewhat despondingly. "But no
matter--after you, your father and your father's affairs shall be my
first consideration. You will let me see you sometimes, won't you?"
"Sometimes," Gladys laughed. "Good-bye! Don't make any mistakes
to-morrow. Your performance to-night was not as good as usual." And,
with this somewhat cruel remark, she stepped lightly into her motor,
and drove off.
Shiel now gave way to despair. There are few conditions in life so
utterly unenviable as penury and love--to be next door to starving,
and at the same time in love. Day after day Shiel, who was thus
afflicted, had revelled in Gladys's company, and had intoxicated
himself with her beauty, fully aware that for each moment of pleasure
there would, later on, be a corresponding moment of pain. It was only
in romance, he told himself, that the penniless lover suddenly finds
himself in a position to marry--in reality, his love suit is rejected
with scorn; his adored one marries some one who has, or pretends he
has, limitless wealth; and the despised swain ends his days a
miserable and dejected bachelor.
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