nd uncle was as pleased as Punch; and as for me, I didn't believe
in God then, or I should have prayed Him to strike them both down
dead as they stood.

Why did I hate them so? And you call yourself a man and a parson,
and one that knows the heart of man! Why did I hate them? Because I
loved him as no woman will ever love you, sir, if you'll pardon me
being so bold, if you live to be a thousand.

He would have understood all about everything with half what I have
been telling you. As it is, I sometimes think that he understood,
for he was very gentle with me and kind, not making too much of
Lilian when I was by, yet never with a look or a word that wasn't
the look and the word of her good, true lover; and she was very
happy, for she loved him as much as that blue-and-white teacup kind
of woman can love; and that's more than I thought for at the time.

He was an orphan, and well off, and there was nothing to wait for,
so the wedding was fixed for early in the new year; and I sewed at
her new clothes with a marrow of lead in every bone of my fingers.

A truly understanding person might get some meaning out of my words
when I say that I loved her in my heart all the time that I was
hating her; and the devil himself must have sent out my soul and
made use of the rest of me on that night I shall tell you about
presently.

It was in the sharp, short, frosty days that brought in Christmas
that uncle came home one day from Lewes, looking thunder black, with
an eye like fire and a mouth like stone. And he walked straight into
the kitchen where we three were making toast for tea, for Edgar was
one of us by this time, and lent a hand at all such little things as
young folks can be merry over together. And uncle says--

'Leave my house, young man; it's an honest house and a clean, and no
fit place for a sinful swine. Get out,' he says, '"For without are
dogs--"'

With that he went on with a long text of Revelation that I won't
repeat to you, sir, for I know your ears are nice, and it's out of
one of the plainest-spoken parts of the Bible. Edgar turned as white
as a sheet.

'I swear to God,' he said, 'I wasn't to blame. I know what you have
heard, but if I can't whiten myself without blacking a woman

I'll live and die as black as hell,' he says. 'But I don't need
whitening with those that love me,' he says, looking at Lilian and
then at me--oh! yes, he looked at me then.

I said, 'No, indeed,' and so did Lilian; but sh