kins. But consider. I was in such straits that _bankruptcy_
lay between me and my political future. Moreover--I had lost nerve,
sleep, balance. I was scarcely master of myself when Pearson first
broached the matter to me--"

"Pearson!" cried Marcella, involuntarily. She recalled the figure of the
solicitor; had heard his name from Frank Leven. She remembered Wharton's
impatient words--"There is a tiresome man wants to speak to me on
business--"

It was _then I_--that evening! Something sickened her.

Wharton raised himself in his chair and looked at her attentively with
his young haggard eyes. In the faint lamplight she was a pale vision of
the purest and noblest beauty. But the lofty sadness of her face filled
him with a kind of terror. Desire--impotent pain--violent resolve, swept
across him. He had come to her, straight from the scene of his ruin, as
to the last bulwark left him against a world bent on his destruction,
and bare henceforward of all delights.

"Well, what have you to say to me?" he said, suddenly, in a low changed
voice--"as I speak--as I look at you--I see in your face that you
distrust--that you have judged me; those two men, I suppose, have done
their work! Yet from you--_you_ of all people--I might look not only for
justice--but--I will dare say it--for kindness!"

She trembled. She understood that he appealed to the days at Mellor, and
her lips quivered.

"No," she exclaimed, almost timidly--"I try to think the best. I see the
pressure was great."

"And consider, please," he said proudly, "what the reasons were for that
pressure."

She looked at him interrogatively--a sudden softness in her eyes. If at
that moment he had confessed himself fully, if he had thrown himself
upon her in the frank truth of his mixed character--and he could have
done it, with a Rousseau-like completeness--it is difficult to say what
the result of this scene might have been. In the midst of shock and
repulsion, she was filled with pity; and there were moments when she was
more drawn to his defeat and undoing, than she had ever been to his
success.

Yet how question him? To do so, would be to assume a right, which in
turn would imply _his_ rights. She thought of that mention of "gambling
debts," then of his luxurious habits, and extravagant friends. But she
was silent. Only, as she sat there opposite to him, one slim hand
propping the brow, her look invited him.

He thought he saw his advantage.

"You must r