"H'm—respectable enough on the face of it. And how do you come to be in this plight?"
"When my mother died, my father left me in a seaport town in charge of a friend of his, having paid my board for a year. He was lost at sea, and I was turned out of doors by his friend. I came to London thinking to get some engagement as a governess."
"Oh, you are well educated then?"
"Sufficiently so to teach children. But without influence or references I could get nothing. My small stock of money soon went. I pawned everything I had, even my clothes. I even tried to make a living by selling flowers, but I could not. Everywhere I went, in everything I did, I was unlucky. I sank and sank until——"
"Until right down at the bottom I suppose you met this Jabez of yours. He is your lover?"
"He does love me," blazed forth Miriam, "but I am an honest woman."
"Naturally," Barton chuckled, "otherwise with your beauty you certainly would not be starving. Why are you so honest?"
"I believe in God," her eyes sought his searchingly. "You don't," she said.
"Perhaps not—nevertheless, I am honest too."
"That depends what you call honest," retorted Miriam. "You have plenty of money, no doubt, so you can't very well help behaving so as to keep your freedom. But for that——"