"What has to be said must be said to me, and to me only." Then suddenly she broke down. "Oh, Sammy!" she said, "I know. Don't you believe I know I did you a great wrong? There is nothing to excuse it, except that you don't know what a corner I was in!... What an awful temptation it was! It has all been so easy for you. You have never had to face hard times and black, killing difficulties. You can't be expected to understand what these things mean." "Why didn't you ask me?" the man said surlily; and she answered in that same broken way-- "I ... I could not. First of all, you had gone away, and then I was afraid...." She broke off abruptly; he looked at her sharply, and again he laughed. "You thought I would want payment," he said. "Well, you're right there. I have a good business instinct. I always like to get full value for what I spend, or what is taken from me." At this juncture they had reached the gates of Yelverton Park, and Sir Samuel caught sight of a gardener. He hailed the man, gave the horse into his charge, and burdened him with all sorts of commands to the head-groom. "I'll be round at the stables very shortly," he said. Camilla had walked on, but he overtook her. Her white, drawn face seemed to give him a great deal of satisfaction. "You don't offer to give me back the money, but I suppose that is what is in your mind," he said. His half-bantering tone stung her like the lash of a whip; she was silent only because she could not speak. "Well, my dear, you may as well put that out of your mind once and for all; that little piece of paper which you worked at so carefully is not to be redeemed by money." He searched in his pockets, found his cigarette case, paused to strike a match on his heel, and began smoking without any pretence of courtesy. "This is a funny world, and no mistake! I was very fond of you when I came upon you first," he said; "I was prepared to make no end of a fool of myself about you. And you snubbed me up and down dale; wouldn't have anything to do with me. You were quite able to get along without my friendship, thank you. There are some things that stick, you know, Camilla, and the way you shut down on me in those old days is one of those things. I must say you have a rummy notion of morality! I wasn't good enough to come near you, yet you had no hesitation whatever about robbing me when the time came along." An exclamation like a sob escaped Camilla. He laughed. "It is an ugly way of putting it," he said; "but it is the only way, and I fancy that with his peculiarly straightforward views, his working man's propensity for calling a spade a spade, Mr. Haverford will regard the matter in the same light." The woman turned at this half passionately. "You are not going to tell him! Oh, you cannot. You _shall_ not!" "It lies with you to decide whether I tell him or not."