"I," laughed Kitty mockingly, "help him? Help him!--help any man! My good woman, if he went into the prisoner's dock to-morrow, I would not lift one finger to save him."
Mrs. Malton fell on her knees.
"Oh, my God, don't talk like that!" she cried wildly. "You will ruin him--you will ruin him."
Kitty swept round with a cold glitter, like steel, in her eyes.
"Yes! it is my business to ruin men. When I was poor, and anxious to lead a good life, any outstretched hand might have saved me; but no, I was a pariah and outcast--they closed their doors against me. I asked for bread, they gave me a stone--they made of me a scourge for their own evil doing--this is the time for my revenge; fallen and degraded though I be, I can wring their hearts and ruin their homes through their nearest and dearest, and you come to ask me to relent--you, who, if you saw me to-morrow on the streets, would draw your skirts aside from the moral leper!"
"No, no!" moaned the other, beating her breasts with her hands. "Have mercy, have mercy!"
"What do you want me to do?"
"You know the manager of the company, Mr. Fenton; he is your lover--he can refuse you nothing. Speak to him, and see if anything can be done."
"No!"
"For God's sake!"