'No riddle or joke,' replied Alison, sweetly. 'I seemed to have no friend in the world to aid me, and I had my bread to earn.'
'My poor darling!'
'Yes—poor indeed.'
'And you have left that woman?'
'No.'
'How?'
'She dismissed me bluntly and coarsely.'
'Why?' asked Goring, striking the floor with his spurred heel.
'I was dismissed with a month's salary, because I had been detected wearing your likeness—here, in my locket.'
A smile that rippled into a laugh spread over the face of Goring, who, recalling the mode in which he had been hunted by mother and daughter, took in the whole situation.