" Say it again. Oh, say it again. You see, it is
the last time, Jonker ! "

" I love you, I love you, I have never loved
any one before, dear : I shall never love any one
again ! "

" Ah, yes, you will ! You wiU love the woman you
marry. Promise me, for my sake, you will marry a
woman whom you love. Money-bags or no money-bags,
Jonker, you will marry a woman you love ? "

334



IN EXTREMIS

He kissed her and drew her towards him and kissed
her again and again.
" This is my wedding day, you see," she whispered,
" but it isn't yours, Jonker — not yours. You will
marry later on — and be happy — very happy — some
day."

The pitch-dark night was about them in the dairy.
A bell tolled in the distance. The little dog scrambled
up against his mistress, yelping, jealous, distressed.
" Oh, I love you, I love you ! " she murmured. Then
" good-bye," she said, and was gone.
335



A Bit of To-day



" T TE will recover," said the half a dozen doctors

M.X. assembled in solemn conclave around his bed.
So he died.
The wisest of them, putting on his admirable chastened
expression, went to tell the widow. The dead man, as
all will remember, was close upon eighty, the widow not
twenty-five.
" Dear me !" she said nervously, squeezing the two
bull-pups that had sat up in her lap to scowl at the
doctor. " How very dreadful ! How very dreadful
and sad ! Black doesn't suit me at all ! " This last
sentence she spoke to her maid when the doctor had
gone away.
