She stopped abruptly, frightened now at her own indiscretion.  She had been wrong in wanting to send for Stephen, even in referring to him.  Whatever befell her, she was determined that her people at home should not suffer further on her account.

Father Cruse had caught the look, and his heart gave a bound, though no gesture betrayed him.  “You have not told me your name,” he said simply—­as if it were a matter of routine in cases like hers.

She glanced at him quickly.  “Does it make any difference?”

“It might.  I do not believe you are a criminal, but if I am to help you as I want to do, I must know the truth.”

She thought for a moment.  Here was something she could not escape.  The assumed name had so far shielded her.  She would brave it out as she had done before.

“They call me Mrs. Stanton.”

“Is that your true name?”

The Carnavons were imperious, unforgiving, and sometimes brutal.  Many of them had been roues, gamblers, and spendthrifts, but none of them had ever been a liar.

“No!” she answered firmly.

Father Cruse settled back in his seat.  The ring of sincerity in the woman’s “No” had removed his last doubt.  “You do very wrong, my good woman, not to tell me the whole truth,” he remarked, with some emphasis.  “I am a priest, as you see, and attached to the Church of St. Barnabas—­not far from here.  I visit this station-house almost every morning, seeing what I can do to help people just like yourself.  I will go to Rosenthal, and then I will find your old nurse, and I will try to have your case delayed until your nurse can get hold of her brother.  But that is really all I can do until I have your entire confidence.  I am convinced that you are a woman who has been well brought up, and that this is your first experience in a place of this kind.  I hope it will be the last; I hope, too, that the charge made against you will be proved false.  But does not all this make you realize that you should be frank with me?”

She drew herself up with a certain dignity infinitely pathetic, yet in which, like the flavor of some old wine left in a drained glass, there lingered the aroma of her family traditions.  “I am very grateful, sir, to you.  I know you only want to be kind, but please do not ask me to tell you anything more.  It would only make other people unhappy.  There is no one but myself to blame for my poverty, and for all I have gone through.  What is to become of me I do not know, but I cannot make my people suffer any more.  Do not ask me.”

“It might end their suffering,” he replied quickly.  “I have a case in point now where a man has been searching New York for months, hoping to get news of his wife, who left him nearly a year ago.  He comes in to see me every few nights and we often tramp the streets together.  My work takes me into places she would be apt to frequent, so he comes with me.  He and I were up last night until quite late.  He has nothing in his heart but pity for that poor woman, who he fears has been left stranded by the man she trusted.  So far he has heard nothing of her.  I left him hardly an hour ago.  Now, there, you see, is a case where just a word of frankness and truth might have ended all their sufferings.  I told Mr. O’Day this morning, when I left him, that—­”