him, he took an unassailable position, put
himself altogether in the right Marks's plot did not concern him; he
threw it aside, and followed the guidance of his own discretion.

"I have found you," he said, fingering his throat nervously, "by mere
chance. I came here in search of employment--something in a newspaper.
And I happened to see you in the streets. I asked who you were. Then,
this morning, I watched you and followed you."

"What do you want?"

"That's a strange question, I think."

"You know there can't be anything between us."

"I don't see that."

He breathed hard; his eyes never moved from her face. Lilian, nerved by
despair, spoke in almost a steady voice; but the landscape around her
was veiled in mist; she saw only the visage which her memory had
identified with repugnance and dread.

"If you want my money," she said, "you can have it--you shall have it
at once. I give you it all."

"No, I don't ask for your money," Northway answered, with resentment.
"Here's some one coming; let us walk out into the field."

Lilian followed the direction of his look, and saw a man whom she did
not recognize. She left the path and moved whither her companion was
leading, over the stubby grass; it was wet, but for this she had no
thought.

"How long have you been living in this way?" he asked, turning to her
again.

"You have no right to question me."

"What!--no right? Then who _has_ a right I should like to know?"

He did not speak harshly; his look expressed sincere astonishment.

"I don't acknowledge," said Lilian, with quivering voice, "that that
ceremony made me your wife."

"What do you mean? It was a legal marriage. Who has said anything
against it?"

"You know very well that you did me a great wrong. The marriage was
nothing but a form of words."

"On whose part? Certainly not on mine. I meant everything I said and
promised. It's true I hadn't been living in the right way; but that was
all done with. If nothing had happened, I should have begun a
respectable life. I had made up my mind to do so. I shouldn't have
deceived you in anything."

"Whether that's true or not, I don't know. I _was_ deceived, and
cruelly. You did me an injury you could never have made good."

Northway drew in his cheeks, and stared at her persistently. He had
begun to examine the details of her costume--her pretty hat, her
gloves, the fur about her neck. In face she was not greatly changed
from what he had known,