relieve her! . . . His words made a momentary music in her ears as he
spoke:

'And is this what you asked me to come here for?'

The words filled her with a great shame. She felt herself a dilemma.
It had been no part of her purpose to allude his debts. Viewed in
the light of what was to follow, it would seem to him that she was
trying to foreclose his affection. That could not be allowed to
pass; the error must be rectified. And yet! . . . And yet this very
error must be cleared up before she could make her full wish
apparent. She seemed to find herself compelled by inexorable
circumstances into an unlooked-for bluntness. In any case she must
face the situation. Her pluck did not fail her; it was with a very
noble and graceful simplicity that she turned to her companion and
said:

'Leonard, I did not quite mean that. It would be a pleasure to me to
be of that or any other service to you, if I might be so happy! But
I never meant to allude to your debts. Oh! Leonard, can't you
understand! If you were my husband--or--or going to be, all such
little troubles would fall away from you. But I would not for the
world have you think . . . '

Her very voice failed her. She could not speak what was in her mind;
she turned away, hiding in her hands her face which fairly seemed to
burn. This, she thought, was the time for a true lover's
opportunity! Oh, if she had been a man, and a woman had so appealed,
how he would have sprung to her side and taken her in his arms, and
in a wild rapture of declared affection have swept away all the pain