"I was too sick."
"You weren't too sick to give me the references and send me off to take the job."
"But I was too sick not to have you take it," said Nell. "One of us had to go to work. And if I'd told you, you wouldn't have done it."
"That's true enough," assented Mary. "I wouldn't have dared. It took all the nerve I had, as it was. But now what am I going to do?"
"Why, you'll go right on sticking to your job, of course."
"And keep on being a liar, and a hypocrite, and a falsifier, and maybe some kind of a forger—— Why, I believe I am a forger! I signed your name to some kind of a bail bond!"
"Oh, well; you told me the case was settled, Mary. So you don't have to worry about that."
"I can worry about my conscience if I like," declared Mary, resentfully.
"Yes; but you can't eat your conscience, or buy clothes with it, or hire a room—or anything."
Mary stared down at the floor for a while.