ed, for Waldron,
as they walked back together through the night-hidden lanes, chose the
opportunity to speak of Raymond's private affairs.

"You can't accuse me of wanting to stick my nose into other people's
business, can you, Ray? And you can't fairly say that you've ever found
me taking too much upon myself or anything of that sort."

"No; you're unique in that respect."

"Well, then, you mustn't be savage if I'm personal. You know me jolly
well and you know that you're about the closest friend I've got. And if
you weren't a friend and a great deal to me, I shouldn't speak."

"Go ahead--I can guess. There's only one topic in Bridetown, apparently.
No doubt you've seen me in the company of Sabina Dinnett?"

"I haven't, I can honestly say. But Estelle is very keen about the mill
girls. She wants to do all sorts of fine things for them; and she's
specially friendly with Missis Dinnett's daughter. And she's heard
things that puzzled her young ears naturally, and she told me that some
people say you're being too kind to Sabina and other people say you're
treating her hardly. Of course, that puzzled Estelle, clever though she
is; but, as a man of the world, I saw what it meant and that kindness
may really be cruelty in the long run. You'll forgive me, won't you?"

"Of course, my dear chap. If one lives in a hole like Bridetown, one
must expect one's affairs to be common property."

"And if they are, what does it matter as long as they are all
straightforward? I never care a button what anybody says about me,
because I know they can't say anything true that is up against me; and
as to lies, they don't matter."

"And d'you think I care what they say about me?"

"Rather not. Only if a girl is involved, then the case is altered. I'm
not a saint; but--"

"When anybody says they're not a saint, you know they're going to begin
to preach, Arthur."

Waldron did not answer for a minute. He stopped and lighted his pipe. To
Raymond, Sabina appeared unmeasurably distant at this midnight hour.
His volatile mind was quick to take colour from the last experience, and
in the aura of the smoking concert, woman looked a slight and inferior
thing; marriage, a folly; domestic life, a jest.

Waldron spoke again.

"You won't catch me preaching. I only venture to say that in a little
place like this, it's a mistake to be identified with a girl beneath you
in every way. It won't hurt you, and if she was a common girl and given
to p