"No," she replied hurriedly, and looking round as if for help; "not to-night. It is late, and grandfather will be anxious about me. Some other time."
"What if some other time should be too late?" he questioned pitilessly. "You ask me whether he is in danger, and almost in the same breath you show unkindness to the only friend who has it in his power to pull him through his difficulties. I make no boast of being his friend--it is the simple truth. And what should there be to displease you in the knowledge that I am your brother's friend because of the feeling I entertain for you? A girl should be thankful--I will not speak of gratitude--to be in this way the guardian and protector of her brother."
"I am grateful, Mr. Sheldrake, indeed, indeed I am!"
"You have a strange way of showing it, Miss Lily. Pardon me, if I seem to speak harshly, but I am deeply wounded by your conduct, and by the conduct of others who should show a better regard for Alfred's position. Your grandfather is cold to me--Alfred's sweetheart misjudges me; but I could forgive these, if you were kind. It is due to my self-respect--which I cannot forfeit, even to win your good opinion--to ask you again whether I may tell you what makes me so earnest in your brother's cause?"
Thus miserably constrained, Lily whispered, "Yes," in a faint tone, knowing what was coming, and dreading it. Mr. Sheldrake dropped his voice to the requisite pitch of tenderness, and prepared to make his avowal.
"I saw you first by accident, Miss Lily. I was passing the Royal White Rose Music-hall one evening--it was in June of last year, a night I shall never forget--and having a spare half hour I dropped in. Almost as I entered, you came upon the stage, and from that moment it seemed to me that my fate was fixed. Such an impression did your sweet face make upon me that I drove to the hall on the following evening, and being acquainted with Storks the manager, we spoke together about you. You remember on that night I threw you a bouquet--I bought it especially for the pretty girl who had made such an impression upon me--and after the performance I came to the back of the stage, and had the pleasure of being introduced to you. I saw that you were too good for such a place--that you were in every way different from the usual run of music-hall performers--and you must take the blame on yourself for having attracted me in such a manner. It is not many girls who have done so--nay, no other has ever produced a similar impression upon me. From that moment I began to love you."
He did not appear to be aware that the very words he employed in declaring his love showed of what base material it was composed. His speech flowed smoothly, and he mentally congratulated himself upon his skill in delivering it. There was no tremor in his voice, for the situation was not new to him. He had delivered himself of artificial love-phrases to a score of girls in his time, and he had become practised in the art; but he was compelled to acknowledge to himself that never had he found conquest so difficult as this--which gave it without doubt a keener zest, and made him as artificially earnest as it was in his false nature to be.
Lily listened tremblingly. It was the first avowal of love that had ever been spoken to her, and it met with no response in her heart. But thought of Alfred's peril compelled her attention. Encouraged by her silence, Mr. Sheldrake proceeded.
"I saw you home that night, and after lingering about the street long after you entered the house--see what an impression you made upon me!--it was my good fortune to make the acquaintance of your brother. He has told you of the circumstance probably?"
He paused for her reply, and she gave it.