"Do I fulfil the requirements?"
"Exactly."
"Then proceed at once; and I will promise to answer exactly as I think."
"Well, then, I have a friend, about my own age, of sufficiently mean birth, whose father was a man of restricted views and small mind, both cramped and narrowed by the doctrines of the religious sect to which he belonged, but whose mother was an angel. Unfortunately the mother died too soon after the boy's birth to be of much good to him, beyond leaving him the recollection of her sweet face and voice and influence--a recollection which he cherishes to this day. After his wife's death the boy's father became more and more imbued with the sectarian doctrines, an undue observance of which had already had its effect in his home, and, dying shortly after, left his son almost unprovided for, and friendless, save in such friendship as the lad might have made for himself. This, however, proved sufficient. The master of the school at which the lad attended took great interest in him, half-adopted him as it were, and, when the youth was old enough, took him as his assistant in the school. This would have met my friend's views sufficiently--for he was a plodding, hardworking fellow--had he had no other motive; but he had another: he was in love with the schoolmaster's daughter, and she returned the passion. Am I wearying you with this rigmarole?"
"You know you are not. Please go on!"
"So they proceeded in their Arcadian simplicity, until the schoolmaster died, leaving his wife and daughter unprovided for; and my friend had to go out into the world to seek his fortune--to seek his bread rather, I should say--bread to be shared, as soon as he had found enough of it, with his betrothed. But while he was floundering away, throwing out a grappling-iron here and there, striving to attach himself to something where bread was to be earned, the young lady had a slice of cake offered to her, and, as she had always preferred cake to bread, she accepted it at once, and thought no more of the man who was hunting so eagerly for penny rolls for her sake. You follow me?"
"Yes, yes! Pray go on!"
"Well, I'm nearly at the end of my story! When my friend found that the only person in the world which was dear to him had treated him so basely he thought he should die, and he said he should, but he didn't. He suffered frightfully; he never attempts to deny that, though there was an end of all things for him; that life was henceforth a blank, and all that sort of thing, for which see the circulating library. And he recovered; he threw himself into the penny-roll hunting with greater vigour than ever, and he succeeded wonderfully. For a time, whenever his thoughts turned towards the woman who had treated him so shamefully, had jilted him so heartlessly, he was full of anger and hopes for revenge, but that period passed away, and the desire to improve his position, and to make progress in the work which he had undertaken, occupied all his attention. Then he found that this was not sufficient; that his heart yearned for some one to love, for some one to be loved by: and he found that some one, but he did not ask her to become his wife!"
"He did not. Why not?"
"Because he was afraid her mind might have been poisoned by some warped story of his former engagement, some----"