all the rest of it.  A good many lies on her side; a good deal of selfishness on mine.  I happened to have money just then.  And just when I had no money —­ about the time you met me —­ a child was born.  She said it was mine; anyway, I had to be responsible.  Of course I had long ago repented of behaving so badly to Henrietta.  But no woman can understand, and it’s impossible to explain to them.  You’re a beast and a villain, and there’s an end of it.’

‘And how has this become known to Miss Winter?’ Harvey inquired, seeing that Morphew lost himself in gloom.

’You might almost guess it; these things always happen in the same way.  You’ve heard me speak of a fellow called Driffel —­ no?  I thought I might have mentioned him.  He got to know the girl.  He and I were at a music-hall one night, and she met us; and I heard, soon after, that she was living with him.  It didn’t last long.  She got ill, and wrote to me from Westminster Hospital; and I was foolish enough to give her money again, off and on, up to only a few months ago.  She talked about living a respectable life, and so on, and I couldn’t refuse to help her.  But I found out it was all humbug, and of course I stopped.  Then she began to hunt me, Out of spite.  And she heard from someone —­ Driffel, as likely as not —­ all about Henrietta; and yesterday Henrietta had a letter from her.  This morning I was sent for, to explain myself.’

‘At one time, then, you had lost sight of her altogether?’

’She has always had money from me, more or less regularly, except at the time that Driffel kept her.  But there has been nothing else between us, since that first year.  I kept up payments on account of the child, and she was cheating me in that too.  Of course she put out the baby to nurse, and I understood it lived on; but the truth was it died after a month or two —­ starved to death, no doubt.  I only learnt that, by taking a good deal of trouble, when she was with Driffel.’

‘Starved to death at a month or two old,’ murmured Rolfe.  ’The best thing for it, no doubt.’

‘It’s worse than anything I have done,’ said Morphew, miserably.  ’I think more of it now than I did at the time.  A cruel, vile thing!’

‘And you told Miss Winter everything?’

’Everything that can be spoken about.  The plain truth of the story.  The letter was a lie from beginning to end, of course.  It made me out a heartless scoundrel.  I had been the ruin of the girl —­ a helpless innocent; and now, after all these years, wanted to cut her adrift, not caring what became of her.  My defence seemed to Henrietta no defence at all.  The fact that there had been such an episode in my life was quite sufficient.  Everything must be at an end between us, at once and for ever.  She could not live with me, knowing this.  No one should learn the cause; not even her mother; but I must never see her again.  And so I came away, meaning to end my life.  It wasn’t cowardice that prevented me; only the thought that she would be mixed up in it, and suffer more than I had made her already.’