"There you will have to give some proof of what you say!"
"I can do so—in one word—Jabez!"
Miriam reeled, deadly white, and but for the support of a chair she caught she would have fallen. The blow was so unexpected, so suddenly delivered, that she knew not how to parry it.
"Jabez," she murmured, pale to the lips; "Jabez!"
"Yes, Jabez," cried Mrs. Darrow, following up her advantage. "Fie on you, you horrible woman! meeting low creatures behind the church and plotting murder!"
"Ah! you followed. Yes, Mr. Barton told me you did."
"Yes, I did follow you in the interests of purity. And it is well I did, for I found out what you are, a low, wicked——"
Miriam held up her hand and stepped forward so suddenly that Mrs. Darrow stopped short.
She saw how perilous was her position; and she nerved herself to cope with it.
"Silence!" she cried peremptorily. "You shall not abuse me in this way. If you have any definite charge to make, state it, and the evidence on which you have it."