"Don't you know, Christopher Tietjens, that there is only one man from whom a woman could take 'Neither I condemn thee' and not hate him more than she hates the fiend! . . ."
Tietjens so looked at her that he contrived to hold her attention.
"I'd like you to let me ask you," he said, "how I could throw stones at you? I have never disapproved of your actions."
Her hands dropped dispiritedly to her sides.
"Oh, Christopher," she said, "don't carry on that old play acting. I shall never see you again, very likely, to speak to; You'll sleep with the Wannop girl to-night: you're going out to be killed to-morrow. Let's be straight for the next ten minutes or so. And give me your attention. The Wannop girl can spare that much if she's to have all the rest. . . ."
She could see that he was giving her his whole mind.
"As you said just now," he exclaimed slowly, "as I hope to meet my Redeemer I believe you to be a good woman. One that never did a dishonourable thing."
She recoiled a little in her chair.
"Then!" she said, "you're the wicked man I've always made believe to think you, though I didn't."
Tietjens said: