"Well, do you think it would be best for him to marry you, and plunge both himself and you into poverty?" asked Alice.
"You talk as his mother did," sighed Doris.
"After all, there was commonsense in her view of the matter," persisted Alice. "What is the use of two young people marrying, and living in poverty ever after, when they may both be rich and happy if they will?"
"Riches and happiness do not always go together."
"I don't think poverty and happiness do," said Alice, curtly.
Doris felt a little shaken. Would it really be better for Bernard and she to be true to each other, when their marriage would only mean poverty and anxiety?
Norman came again that afternoon when Alice had gone.
"Doris," he said, when they were conversing in Mrs. Austin's back parlour, "perhaps, as Cameron has been so long in writing, he may have ceased to care for you."
"Perhaps so indeed!" rejoined Doris, with a sigh.
"Couldn't you ascertain whether it is so?" suggested the other.