rom time
to time. I got to believe that I had never seen anywhere any girl or
woman who was so honest as you are, and good in a dozen secret ways that
needed a deal of discovering. I found out far more about you than you
imagined. I heard of you in cottages that you never knew I was in; and
everything I heard made me respect you more and more. Mind this, too. I
had no sort of personal liking for the sort of thing you were doing. I
don't admire beastly little rooms and poverty and sick people as
appealing to a fine sentiment. There never was anything of the parson or
the benevolent old lady about me. I would rather give half a crown to an
impertinent little boy who had just whopped another boy bigger than
himself than give a halfpenny tract to a sickly child in its mother's
arms: that's original sin in me, I suppose. But all that squalid sort of
work you were in only made the jewel shine the more. I used to think I
should like to marry a very grand woman, who could be presented at court
without a tremor, who would come into a drawing-room as if she was
conferring a favor on the world at large; and I certainly never thought
I should find the best and finest woman I had ever seen in back kitchens
sewing pinafores for children. And then when I found her there, wasn't
it natural I should put some store by her friendship? I suppose you
didn't know what I thought of you, Wenna, because I kept chaffing you
and Mabyn? I have told you something of it now; and now I want you to
say whether you have a right to shunt me off like this, without a word
of explanation."

She sat still, silent and nervous. The rude and impetuous eloquence of
his speech, broken by many a hesitating stammer, had touched her. There
was more thoughtfulness and tenderness in this wild lad than she had
supposed.

"How can I explain?" she burst out suddenly. "I should cover myself with
shame!"

"And what have you to be ashamed of?" he said with a stare. The distress
she was obviously suffering was so great that he had almost a mind to
take her at her word and leave the house without further ado.

Just at this moment, when he was considering what would be the most
generous thing to do, she seemed to nerve herself to speak to him, and
in a low and measured voice she said, "Yes, I will tell you. I have had
a letter this morning from Mr. Roscorla. He asks me if it is true that
you are paying me such attention that people notice it; and he asks me
if that is ho