"Josie!"
The interjection was so imperative that she was silenced. "Why, what, Nat?" she asked, rising.
"The time has come," he declared; "you must know the truth."
"Oh, Nat!"
"I'm not what you think me," he continued, dramatic.
"Oh, Nat!"
"Nor what your father thinks me, nor what anybody else in this town thinks me. I'm not a regular Christian—it's all a bluff: I didn't know anything about a church till I came here. I smoke and I drink and I swear and I gamble, and I only cut them all out in order to trick you into caring for me!"
"Oh, Nat, I don't believe it."
"Alas, Josie!" he protested violently, "it's true, only too true!"
"But you did it to win my love, Nat?"