"I hear you have begun business again," she said.
"Well--I might answer you as Green, my old timekeeper, answered me to-day. I happened to say to him, 'We have begun once more, Green.' 'Yes, in a sort of way, sir,' said he, gruffly. I have begun 'in a sort of way,' Miss Dallory."
"And what 'sort of way,' is it?"
"In as cautious and quiet a way as it is well possible for a poor man to begin," answered Richard. "I have no capital, as you must be aware; or at least, as good as none."
"I dare say you could get enough of that if you wanted it. Some of your friends have plenty of it, Mr. Richard."
"I know that. Mrs. Gass quarrels with me every day, because I will not take hers, and run the risk of making ducks and drakes of it. No. I prefer to feel my way; to stand or fall alone, Miss Dallory."
"I have heard Richard North called obstinate," remarked the young lady, looking into the air.
"When he believes he is in the right. I don't think it is a bad quality, Miss Dallory. My dear sister Bessy used to say----"
"Oh! Richard--what of Bessy?" interrupted Miss Dallory, all ceremony thrown to the winds. "I never was so painfully shocked in my life as when I opened Frank's letter telling me she was dead. What could have killed her?"
"It was the fever, you know," answered Richard, sadly. "I shall never forget what I felt when I heard it. I was in Belgium."