e?'

'Because,--oh, because--. Surely he ought, if it is true that he had
once promised to marry you.'

'That is certainly true.'

'And you were here, and I knew nothing of it. Of course I should have
been very different to him had I known that,--that,--that--'

'That there was such a woman as Winifred Hurtle interfering with him.
Then you heard it by chance, and you were offended. Was it not so?'

'And now he tells me that I have been unjust to him and he bids me ask
you. I have not been unjust.'

'I am not so sure of that. Shall I tell you what I think? I think that
he has been unjust to me, and that therefore your injustice to him is
no more than his due. I cannot plead for him, Miss Carbury. To me he
has been the last and worst of a long series of, I think, undeserved
misfortune. But whether you will avenge my wrongs must be for you to
decide.'

'Why did he go with you to Lowestoft?'

'Because I asked him,--and because, like many men, he cannot be
ill-natured although he can be cruel. He would have given a hand not
to have gone, but he could not say me nay. As you have come here, Miss
Carbury, you may as well know the truth. He did love me, but he had
been talked out of his love by my enemies and his own friends long
before he had ever seen you. I am almost ashamed to tell you my own
part of the story, and yet I know not why I should be ashamed. I
followed him here to England--because I loved him. I came after him,
as perhaps a woman should not do, because I was true of heart. He had
told me that he did not want me;--but I wanted to be wanted, and I
hoped that I might lure him back to his troth. I have utterly failed,
and I must return to my own country,--I will not say a broken-hearted
woman, for I will not admit of such a condition,--but a creature with
a broken spirit. He has misused me foully, and I have simply forgiven
him; not because I am a Christian, but because I am not strong enough
to punish one that I still love. I could not put a dagger into him,--or
I would; or a bullet,--or I would. He has reduced me to a nothing by
his falseness, and yet I cannot injure him! I, who have sworn to myself
that no man should ever lay a finger on me in scorn without feeling my
wrath in return, I cannot punish him. But if you choose to do so it is
not for me to set you against such an act of justice.' Then she paused
and looked up to Hetta as though expecting a reply.

But Hetta had no reply to make. All had bee