"Will you not speak?" he at length urged softly.
After that I told him my little tale in great haste, though sobs interrupted me. While telling him all, it occurred to me that after knowing my people's history so well he might not wish to be my friend any longer, and I gazed at him anxiously when I had finished. His face, however, relieved my fears. His eyes wore the thoughtful, apprehensive look that I had noticed several times before, and his lips smiled the kind, well-known smile.
"About a hundred shillings," I confessed, thinking that a hundred shillings was an enormous sum.
He put his hand on the handle of the door, and looked at me entreatingly.
"They might be looking for you, and you must go; the porter will hand you all you want to-morrow."
But I did not go. Pressing myself still harder against the wall, I looked up at him, and my lips trembled as I said:
"Are you cross with me for having asked you?"
"You are a child," he said with great decision; "let me tell you once and for all that I am your friend, to whom you not only _may_, but _must_, confide all your troubles"--his face wore the entreating look again--"but go now, please."
The porter handed me an envelope the next morning, and when I tore it open I saw that it contained neatly folded bank-notes.
From that day onward I felt boundlessly grateful towards my friend, loved him, if such was possible, more than I had done before, and could hardly control my affection whenever we met. He, however, remained the same.
To him my poems were the sole and constant source of conversation, and perfect though I thought them, he was far from being satisfied.
Now and again he would acknowledge the beauty of a thought or verse, and the slightest praise from him was sweet reward to me.
There were, of course, still times when our opinions differed, when I grew sulky and obstinate, and even went so far as to behave with the rudeness of a naughty child. But he never lost his composure; it was generally his calmness and silence that made me conscious of my fault, and I never failed to beg his pardon as soon as I had realized that I was in the wrong.
He on his part was always ready to forgive me, and our friendship was established firmly once more.
