‘I said nothing of that kind.’

‘Nor to any one else?’

‘To no one.’

’Yet you told this woman where I was living, and that I had been abroad for a long time.  Why?’

‘Yes, I told her so much about you,’ Nancy replied.  ’Not when she first came to me, but afterwards—­only the other day.  I wanted employment, and didn’t know how to get it, except through her.  She promised me a place if I would disclose your name; not that she knew or cared anything about you, but because she still had suspicions about Mr. Crewe.  I was desperate, and I told her.’

‘Desperate?  Why?’

’How can I make you understand what I have gone through?  What do you care?  And what do I care whether you understand or not?  It wasn’t for money, and Beatrice French knew it wasn’t.’

’Then it must have been that you could not bear the monotony of your life.’

Her answer was a short, careless laugh.

‘Where is this shop?  What do you do?’

’It’s a dress-supply association.  I advise fools about the fashions, and exhibit myself as a walking fashion-plate.  I can’t see how it should interest you.’

’Whatever concerns you, Nancy, interests me more than anything else in the world.’

Again she laughed.

‘What more do you want to know?’

She was half turned from him, leaning at the mantelpiece, a foot on the fender.

’You said just now that you have gone through worse things than the shame of being thought unmarried.  Tell me about it all.’

’Not I, indeed.  When I was willing to tell you everything, you didn’t care to hear it.  It’s too late now.’

’It’s not too late, happily, to drag you out of this wretched slough into which you are sinking.  Whatever the cost, that shall be done!’

’Thank you, I am not disposed to let any one drag me anywhere.  I want no help; and if I did, you would be the last person I should accept it from.  I don’t know why you came here after the agreement we made the other night.’

Tarrant stepped towards her.

’I came to find out whether you were telling lies about me, and I should never have thought it possible but for my bad conscience.  I know you had every excuse for being embittered and for acting revengefully.  It seems you have only told lies about yourself.  As, after all, you are my wife, I shan’t allow that.’

Once more she turned upon him passionately.

’I am not your wife!  You married me against your will, and shook me off as soon as possible.  I won’t be bound to you; I shall act as a free woman.’

‘Bound to me you are, and shall be—­as I to you.’

’You may say it fifty times, and it will mean nothing.—­How bound to you?  Bound to share my money?’

’I forgive you that, because I have treated you ill.  You don’t mean it either.  You know I am incapable of such a thought.  But that shall very soon be put right.  Your marriage shall be made known at once.’