A queer smile played over the listener's face.
"Till next time," he said. "It's all over with me. The pitcher has gone too often to the well, and it has got broken at last. And I deserved all I got--there is no question whatever about that."
"You are not to say another word," Hetty said sternly.
"All right. Only that you are an angel of goodness. If I could only tell you----"
He lay back exhausted and closed his eyes again.
[CHAPTER LV.]
THE CORNER HOUSE AGAIN.
There was no chance for Balmayne from the first. He was perfectly conscious all the time; he was to have anything that he required. He was absolutely cynical and callous as to the future. He had always played the coward's part all his life, and now, strangely enough, when he came to die he showed the greatest indifference.
He smiled into the face of the man whose good name he might have cleared, but he gave no sign. So hard and callous a nature was impervious to kindness. Anybody who did a kind action for its own sake was a fool in Balmayne's eyes.