“You must pick up the pieces and begin again,” she said sombrely, “and consider yourself lucky if you are able to. A second chance does not come to us all.”
“What second chance am I likely to have?” said Loree tragically. “None. He has me in a trap that I cannot escape from without shame.”
“I could help you if you were worth it,” said Mrs Cork cryptically.
The girl could only look at her with agonised eyes. She knew she had proved herself unworthy of help on this woman’s part, but she thought of Pat, and her glance was entreating.
“No woman has ever helped me,” stated Valeria Cork. “A woman stole my husband and destroyed my happiness. In all my goings up and down, and struggles to live uprightly, women have kicked me and wiped their boots on me.” What gleam of hope she had felt left Loree’s heart, but came back at Valeria’s next words: “That is no reason why I should be as base as they. And, at the last, you have shown me that a woman can be kind to another. I will tell you truthfully that your action in bringing that fifty pound note is the first disinterestedly generous thing a woman has ever done for me.”
Poor Loree’s face drooped in shame.
“It was not altogether disinterested,” she confessed. “I—I did think, as you divined, that it might also be a way of getting even with my conscience for keeping the diamonds—”
“Ah!”
“Still, I did want to give you a helping hand if you would let me. I liked you awfully, and was so dreadfully sorry—”
“So you said in your letter.”