the last person I should suspect of being worldly-minded."

"Thank you; that is kind. No, just; merely just. One ought to have
faith in people; I am afraid my own deficiency is want of faith. It
takes so much to make me believe for a moment that any one cares for me."

How hard it was to be silent--harder still to speak! But she did not
speak.

"I can understand that; I have often felt the same. It is the natural
consequence of a very lonely life. If you and I had had fathers and
mothers and brothers and sisters, we might have been different."

"Perhaps so. But about India. For a long time--that is, for many
weeks--I have been casting about in my mind how to change my way of life,
to look out for something that would help me to earn money, and quickly,
but there seemed no chance whatever. Until suddenly one has opened."

And then he explained how the father of one of one of his pupils,
grateful for certain benefits, which Mr. Roy did not specify, and
noticing certain business qualities in him--"which I suppose I have,
though I didn't know it," added he, with a smile--had offered him a
situation in a merchant's office at Calcutta: a position of great trust
and responsibility, for three years certain, with the option of then
giving it up or continuing it.

"And continuing means making a fortune. Even three years means making
something, with my 'stingy' habits. Only I must go at once. Nor is
there any time left me for my decision; it must be yes or no. Which
shall it be?"