streets, wasn't
I? The men did it--Pincher, Hawking, and the rest."

"They shall be punished, John," said Glory in a quivering voice. "As sure
as heaven's above us and there's law in the land----"

"Aye, aye, laddie" (from somewhere by the door), "mak' yersel' sure o'
that. There'll be never a man o' them but he'll hang for it same as a
polecat on a barn gate."

But John shook his head. "Poor fellows! They didn't understand. When they
come to see what they've done---- 'Lord, Lord! lay not this sin to their
charge.'"

* * * * *

She had wiped away the tears that sprung to her eyes and was sitting by
his side and smiling. Her white teeth were showing, her red lips were
twitching, and her face was full of sunshine. He was holding her hand and
gazing at her constantly as if he could not allow himself to lose sight
of her for a moment.

"But I'm half sorry, for all that, Glory," he said.

"Sorry?"

"That we are not both in the other world, for there you were my bride, I
remember, and all our pains were over."

Then her sweet face coloured up to the forehead, and she leaned over the
bed and whispered, "Ask me to be your bride in this one, dearest."

"I can't! I daren't!"

"Are you thinking of the vows?"

"No!" emphatically. "But--I am a dying man--I know that quite well. And
what right have I----"

She gave a little gay toss of her golden head. "Pooh! Nobody was ever
married because he had a _right_ to be exactly."

"But there is your own profession--your great career."

She shook her head gravely. "That's all over now."

"Eh?" reaching up on his elbow.

"When you had gone and nearly everybody was deserting your work, I
thought I should like to take up a part of it."

"And did you?"

She nodded.

"Blessed be God! Oh, God is very good!" and he lay back and panted.

She laughed nervously. "Well, are you determined to make me ashamed? Am I
to throw myself at your head, sir? Or perhaps you are going to refuse me,
after all."

"But why should I burden all the years of your life with the name of a
fallen man? I am dying in disgrace, Glory."

"No, but in honour--great, great honour! These few bad days will be
forgotten soon, dearest--quite, quite forgotten. And in the future time
people will come to me and say--girls, dearest, brave, brave girls, who
are fighting the battle of life like men--they will come and say: 'And
did you know him? Did you really, really know him?'