"Could I? I don't like being a hypocrite. I'm not ashamed to own that I was a bad one, and got into all that trouble in the old country." "Oh! hush, please. You did wrong, and were punished for it. Now all that is passed and forgiven." "I always said you were an angel," said Crellock earnestly, "and you are." "Nonsense! Let us talk of something else." "No: let's talk about that. I want to stand fair and square with you, and I don't want you to think me a humbug and a hypocrite." "Mr Crellock, I never thought so well of you before," said Julia warmly. "Your promise of amendment has made me feel so happy." "Has it?" he cried eagerly, but with a rough kind of respect mingled with his admiration. "So it has me. I mean it--that I do. You shall never see me the worse for drink again." "And you will attend more to the business, then?" "What business?" he said. "The business that you and my father carry on." "The business that I and your father carry on?" "Yes, the speculations about the seals and the oil." Crellock stared at her. "Why, what have you got in your pretty little head?" he said at last. "I only alluded to the business in which you and my father are partners." "Pooh!" cried Crellock, with a sort of laugh. "What nonsense it is of him! Why, my dear, you are not a child now. After all the trouble you and your mother went through. You are a clever, thoughtful little woman, and he ought to have taken you into his confidence." "What do you mean?" cried Julia, for she felt dazed. "Your father! What's the use of a man like him--an old hand--setting himself up as a saint, and playing innocent? It isn't my way. As you say, when one has done wrong and suffered punishment, and is whitewashed--" "Mr Crellock," said Julia, flushing, "I cannot misunderstand your allusions; but if you dare to insinuate that my poor father was guilty of any wrong-doing before he suffered, it is disgraceful, and it is not true." Crellock looked at her admiringly. "Bless you!" he said warmly. "I didn't think you had so much spirit in you. Now be calm, my dear; there's nothing worse than being a sham--a hypocrite. I never was. I always owned up to what I had done. Your father never did." "My father never did anything wrong!" cried Julia. Crellock smiled. "Come, I should like us to begin by being well in each other's confidence," he said as he leaned over and patted the arching neck of Julia's mare. "You must know it, so what's the use of making a pretence about it to me?" "I do not understand you," said Julia indignantly. "Not understand me? Why, my dear girl, you know your father was transported for life?" "Do I know it?" cried Julia, with an indignant flash of her eyes. "Yes, of course you do. Well, what was it for?" "Because appearances were cruelly against him," cried Julia. "They were," said Crellock dryly. "Because his friends doubted him, consequent upon the conduct of a man he trusted," said Julia bitterly.