e justified himself to this woman.
Surely it was only standing by his new colours to try to make his
position seem right to her. He had no hope in it--no hope of persuading
her, least of all of bringing her nearer to him; if he had had that, his
dallying would have seemed sinful, because it would have chimed so
perfectly with all his natural desires.

Ann took up her theme again fiercely. "Look here, Bart Toyner; I want to
know one thing, honour bright--that is," scornfully, "if you care about
honour now that you've got religion."

He gave a silent sarcastic smile, such as one would bestow upon a
naughty, ignorant child. "Well, at least as much as I did before," he
said.

"Well, then, I want to know if you're a-going to stop spying on me now
that father has got well off? There ain't no cause nor reason for you to
hang about me any longer. You know what my life has been, and you know
that through it all I've kept myself like a lady. It ain't nice, knowing
as people do that you came courting once, 'tain't nice to have you
hanging round in this way."

He knew quite well that the reason she gave for objecting to his spying
was not the true one. He had enough insight into her character, enough
knowledge of her manner and the modulations in her voice, to have a
pretty true instinct as to when she was lying and when she was not; but
he did not know that the allusion to the time when he used to court her
was thrown out to produce just what it did in him, a tender recollection
of his old hopes.

"Until Markham is arrested, you know, and every one else at Fentown
knows, that it is my duty to see that you don't communicate with him.
You've fooled me to-night, and I'll have to keep closer watch; but if
you don't want me to do the watching, I can pay another man."

She had hoped faintly that he would have shown himself less resolute;
now there was only one thing to be done. After all, she had known for
days that she might be obliged to do it.

"I wouldn't take it so hard, Bart, if it was any one but you," she said
softly. She went on to say other things of this sort which would make it
appear that there was in her heart an inward softness toward him which
she had never yet revealed. With womanly instinct she played her little
part well and did not exaggerate; but she was not speaking now to the
man of drug-weakened mind and over-stimulated sense whom she had known
in former years.

He spoke with pain and shame in his voice