Our Gentleman Boarder 



self embarrassed under caresses. " But 

 even then there'll be difficulties ; there's 

 little doubt they will have thought of some- 

 one else for him, a very different kind of 

 person, rich, and a lady. 



" I am a lady. Mother dear," said Mary, 

 simply; and indeed it was an undeniable 

 truth. 



" But then," added my Mother, smiling 

 and flushing a little pathetically, "there's 

 us, dear. Wouldn't it be a little uncom- 

 fortable for you to have people like that 

 belonging to you ? " 



"Mother!" said Mary, reproachfully: 

 they understood each other. "You see, 

 dear," she went on, " I shall never be the 

 grand person you imagine, nor live the 

 grand life you think. I told him I could 

 not marry a man who would ask me to do 

 so. He does not wish it, he tells me ; it 

 was all the frivolity of the great world that 

 made him so melancholy, and that he has 

 left it for ever. He says he felt just like 

 a boy going home for the holidays when 

 our coach brought him to Brighton. We 

 should lead a quiet life in the country, and 

 study, and Arthur says I am to go on with 

 the translation of my old French poets, 

 and we shall try to live a kindly simple 

 life with plenty of books and a sweet old 

 127 



