rare fright."

"Yes," said Hester, slowly getting back her composure, "you certainly
frightened me; and I call it a very silly trick."

She said it with a sudden vehemence which surprised herself. It brought
the colour back to her face, too. The young sailor stared at her.

"Well," he said admiringly, "you have a temper! But there's times when
_you_ make mistakes, I reckon."

She supposed him to allude to her unhappy intrusion upon the tattooing.
Her colour deepened to a hot and lively red, and between shame and scorn
she turned and walked from him into the outer office.

"Nay, now!" He followed her, suppliant. "Nay, now!" he repeated, as one
might coax a child. "Simme I can't open my mouth 'ithout angering you,
Miss Marvin; an' yet, ignorant as I be, 'tis plain to me you don't mean no
hurt."

Now Hester had meant to walk straight out of the office and leave him.
It would be hard to say precisely on what second thought she checked
herself and, picking up the poker, sedulously resumed her raking-out of
the stove. Partly, no doubt, she repented of having taken offence when he
meant none. He had been innocent, and her suspicion of him recoiled back
in self-contempt. It was a relief to hear him in turn accusing her
unjustly. It gave her fresh ground, on which she really could defend
herself.

"Hurt?" she echoed half defiantly, stooping and raking at the cinders.

"Why, of course, you hurt," he insisted. "'Tis so queer to me you can't
see it. Just reckon up all the harm this Rosewarne have a-done and is
doing: Mother Butson's school closed, and the poor soul bedridden with
rheumatics, all through being forced to seek field-work, at her time o'
life and in this autumn's weather! My old mother driven into a
charity-house. Nicky Vro dead in Bodmin gaol. Where was the fair play?
Master Clem, I hear, parted from his sister and packed off this very day
to a home in London--lucky if 'tis better'n a gaol--"

"Do you accuse _me_ of all these wrongs?"

"No, I don't. But in most of 'em you've been mixed up, and in all of 'em
you might have used power over the man. Where have you put in an oar
except to make matters worse?"

It was on her lips to tell him that she had resigned the teachership; but
she forbore.

"Do you know," she answered quietly, "that half-truths may be worse than
lies, and a charge which is half-true the most cruelly unjust? We will
agree that I have done more harm here than good. But