"Don't look so disgusted. He would have been kind to me."
"And do you think you couldn't find a better husband than a—than a pickpocket?"
"He would have been honest if I'd married him," said Carrie, quietly.
"He says so, of course; but he wouldn't. A man says anything to get the girl he's fond of to promise to marry him. Do you think it's possible to change the habits of years, of all a man's life, perhaps, like that?"
"I know it would have been possible," persisted she, obstinately. "I know I could have worried him, and nagged at him, and worked for him, till I made him do what I wanted."
And Max saw in her face, as she looked solemnly at the fire, that dogged, steady resolution of the blue-eyed races.
"Well," said he crossly, "then I'm very glad he's been caught."
"Ah!" cried she, quickly, "you don't know what it will lead to, though. He knows something, and if your friend, Mr. Horne, won't try to get him off, why, he'll be sorry."
Max looked worried and thoughtful at this threat.
"I won't believe," said he, stoutly, "that my friend had anything to do with—with what happened at the place. It's monstrous!—impossible!"