"Do you really mean--that he was a sandwichman--in the Strand, one of those men who carry boards upon their backs?"
The visitor laughed as if she regretted the warmth to which she had given way; but there was something in her laughter which did not ring altogether true.
"Oh, I didn't mean to give myself away--or him either. I don't suppose he's very proud of his little experiences, so if you ever meet him again don't let him know that I told you; I shouldn't like him to think that I'd given him away on a thing like that--especially to you, because I happen to know that there's nothing in the world for which he cares except your good opinion, and that makes it so funny."
"How do you know he cares for my good opinion?"
"As if I didn't know! Why, he bought a portrait of yours in a picture paper; he cut it out, he made a little case for it--a sort of little silk bag stiffened with cardboard--he bought the silk himself, shaped it, put every stitch in it with his own needle and thread; he carried it about with him inside his shirt; I believe he said his prayers to it."
The girl had all at once grown scarlet; what was almost like a flame seemed blazing in her eyes.
"If--if he so wanted my portrait, how did you come to be possessed of that locket with my likeness in it?"
"That's one of the things of which I am ashamed; and, as I'm going to turn over a new leaf and become a respectable married woman, it's one which I want to make a clean breast of--to you. That locket was stolen from him when he was trying to get some sleep on one of the steps of the tunnel under Hungerford Bridge by two men who knew he had got it on him. One of them sold it to--an acquaintance of mine; he showed it to me, I recognised you from the picture he had cut out of the paper, and I bought it."
"Why didn't you give it back to Mr. Beaton? You knew that it was his."
"Well, that's one of the peculiarities of human nature. I didn't. I couldn't tell you why; at least, it would take me a very long time to do it; human nature is such a mass of complications and contradictions. I gave it to you instead."