hild.'

'My poor girl!'

The words fell from him involuntarily. Nancy's look became as scornful
and defiant as before.

'Oh, that was nothing. I've gone through a good deal more than that.'

'Stop. Tell me this. Have you in your anger--anger natural
enough--allowed yourself to speak to any one about me in the way I
should never forgive? In the spirit of your letter, I mean. Did you give
this Beatrice French any ground for thinking that I made a speculation
of you?'

'I said nothing of that kind.'

'Nor to any one else?'

'To no one.'

'Yet you told this woman where I was living, and that I had been abroad
for a long time. Why?'

'Yes, I told her so much about you,' Nancy replied. 'Not when she first
came to me, but afterwards--only the other day. I wanted employment, and
didn't know how to get it, except through her. She promised me a place
if I would disclose your name; not that she knew or cared anything
about _you_, but because she still had suspicions about Mr. Crewe. I was
desperate, and I told her.'

'Desperate? Why?'

'How can I make you understand what I have gone through? What do you
care? And what do _I_ care whether you understand or not? It wasn't for
money, and Beatrice French knew it wasn't.'

'Then it must have been that you could not bear the monotony of your
life.'

Her answer was a short, careless laugh.

'Where is this shop? What do you do?'

'It's a dress-supply association. I advise fools about the fashions,
and exhibit myself as a walking fashion-plate. I can't see how it should
interest you.'

'Whatever concerns you, Nancy, interests me more than anything else in
the world.'

Again she laughed.

'What more do you want to know?'

She was half turned from him, leaning at the mantelpiece, a foot on the
fender.

'You said just now that you have gone through worse things than the
shame of being thought unmarried. Tell me about it all.'

'Not I, indeed. When I was willing to tell you everything, you didn't
care to hear it. It's too late now.'

'It's not too late, happily, to drag you out of this wretched slough
into which you are sinking. Whatever the cost, _that_ shall be done!'

'Thank you, I am not disposed to let any one drag me anywhere. I want
no help; and if I did, you would be the last person I should accept it
from. I don't know why you came here after the agreement we made the
other night.'

Tarrant stepped towards her.

'I came to find out whether you were