"He?" The young girl's lips curled in scorn. "Well, he bore it."
Atkins frowned. "Have a care, Jane!--Alison is not the man to forgive an insult, least of all from you. He may have borne it for the moment, but he will never forget it, and you may have to atone for it at some future day. I know him!"
"And so do I! Have no anxiety, Mr. Atkins, I do not fear this sort of revenge, neither do I care for it!"
"Avoid that tone, Miss Jane, at least in speaking of him. You might drive him to break his troth."
"Hardly! Mr. Alison too well knows my value to him."
Atkins shook his head. He had never before seen his ward thus. "You know as well as I, that Alison loves you in spite of all, and would have loved you without your fortune," he said.
"And would have chosen me?"
He was silent.
"Spare your championship!" said Jane bitterly. "I know to what considerations I shall alone owe the honor of one day being called Mrs. Alison!"
Atkins fixed his keen glance upon her for a moment. "And is this anything new to you?" he asked deliberately. "Did you not know this just as well as now when, five months ago you promised him your hand? and this promise which the heir and future head of the house of Alison and Company then received"--he laid a marked emphasis upon the words--"would it have been given him if he had, for example, held there the modest position of clerk?"