"No, no, it isn't that," he said, "but I haven't been called by my Christian name for years and years," he said wearily, "and somehow it seems to span all the bad times and take me back to the—the——"
"The 'Jack' days?" she suggested, and he nodded.
Then after another period of silence.
"This is a queer ending to it all, isn't it?" he said, and her heart skipped a beat.
"Ending?" she whispered. "No, no, not ending! It may be the beginning of a new life. I haven't got religious," she added quickly, "and I'm not getting sentimental. All my past life doesn't come up in front of me as it does in the story-books. Only I've just faith that there's something better in life than I've ever found."
"I should think there is," said Crewe. "It couldn't be much worse, could it?"
"I haven't been bad," she said—"not bad like you probably think I have."
"I never thought you were bad," he said. "You were just a victim like the rest of them. You were only a kid when you started working for the colonel, weren't you?"
She nodded.