"I want to help her—I want to lift her out of this slum in which she lives—make some of her dreams come true. I am rich; I can do many things secretly without her knowledge."
"You are young; would you marry her?"
"My dear sir—she's a child. Besides—I——"
"Besides—you belong to another world," broke in Quarle mockingly. "Get back over your wall, my friend, and leave her alone. Much better leave her to her dreams and her fancies, even if they are never to be realized, than shatter them as you would shatter them. Get back over your wall."
"You don't understand, and I don't suppose you ever will," exclaimed Gilbert quickly. "But I shall find a way to help her yet."
"Perhaps—perhaps," said Simon Quarle, nodding his head slowly. "But for the present get back over your wall!"
CHAPTER IV
THE PRINCESS GOES TO DINNER
THAT absurd business of climbing the wall again had to be got over, and was safely accomplished; to do him justice, Mr. Simon Quarle refrained from watching Gilbert's departure, and so took away one pang at least. The last vision Gilbert had of him was as he dropped over into the other garden, and, looking back, saw the old man standing with his hands clasped behind his back, and his bent shoulders turned towards where Gilbert had disappeared, and his eyes fixed upon the opposite wall.