"I know that without doubt he has taken advantage of his position here to try and delude you, as he has deluded other poor girls again and again; but you must know the truth. He is not fit to touch your hand-- no, not even to stand in your presence. Hush! let me speak. I know all this is cruelly sudden, but you would forgive me if you knew what I have suffered since I saw you last. Dinah, dearest Dinah, give me some little ray of hope to take away with me. You are too beautiful to be cruel--too gentle to send me away despairing. Ah, you are relenting! A word only, and I will go away patiently, and ready to wait till you know me better." "I never could know you better than I do at present," said Dinah firmly, and quietly withdrawing her hand. "Ah, then I may hope?" he cried. "For what, sir?--an increase in my feeling of contempt? Your brother spared you, but I formed my own estimate of your nature, and it is true." "I--I don't understand you," he whispered, "only that your words give me intense pain." "I know, too, my father's estimate of your character. Shall I tell you what he said?" "If you will. It is joy to hear you speak," he cried, as he tried to catch her hand again. "He said, sir, that you were a scoundrel." "Of course," cried Jessop, with a bitter laugh, "from my brother's slanders." "Did your brother slander you when he told me that you married his betrothed?" cried Dinah indignantly, her eyes speaking her disgust. "Should I slander you, sir, if I told you that your words to me--words from a married man, to one whom you know to be his promised wife, are an insult? Have the goodness to go, sir, before my father returns, or I will not be answerable for the consequences. Ah!" She rushed past Jessop, forcing him on one side, for the Major, warned by Robson, had hurried back, and was coming up the path with his stick quivering in his grasp. "Don't--don't, father," she panted in her excitement, "for my sake. I have said enough." The Major's face was purple with anger, but he did not speak, only raised his quivering stick, and pointed down toward the pathway, while Dinah clung to his arm. Jessop shrugged his shoulders, uttered a contemptuous laugh, and calmly took out his case, selected and lit a cigar, closed the case with a snap, pocketed it, and walked by them smoking, insultingly contriving to send a puff of tobacco into the Major's face as he passed. The next minute he was on the shelf path with his face convulsed with fury; and he walked on backward toward the mine, biting off pieces of the cigar, and spitting them out savagely.