Having finished her business with the clerk, she turned to follow the bell-boy to her appointed chamber, and met Roe straight in the eye, as he wearily paced the tiles, counting the minutes in their lagging flight, till his hour should arrive for turning in. "Bertie Roe! Ha! you may well look guilty and ashamed to face me. You did not expect to see me here, I reckon." He held out his hand to her, though his look on meeting was scarcely one of welcome. "We will dispense with hand-shaking, all things considered. We can neither of us be very pleased to see the other; but you need not pass on. I mean to speak my mind to you before I let you go." "Speak on, Miss Rolph. It is natural you should feel strongly against me. I will not even tell you that it was not my fault. That would seem like casting reflections where I promised and still wish to defend." "That sounds proper enough; but I have more against you than you think--another instance of your misconduct. What possesses you, Bertie Roe, to go prowling and ravening about the world like this?--blighting the lives and devastating the affections of trusting women? Why do you do it? What pleasure can you feel in crushing a girl's self-respect, and making her feel shameless and a fool?" "She does not feel one bit like a fool, Miss Rolph; and her self-respect is not crushed at all. Far from wishing to crush her, I am ready to humble myself, and take the blame of what I did not bring about, and, heaven knows, had no wish should happen." "Then you did not wish Maida Springer to run away as she did? If she had stayed, would you have proposed to marry her? You took a curious way to show your intentions." "Maida Springer! What have I to do with _her?_ And what have _you_ to do with Maida Springer?" "She is a particular friend of mine. I have a high opinion of Maida Springer, and I think you have behaved to her like a ruffian." "We are old friends. I have always wished her well, and she wishes me well, I am sure. An unkind word has never passed between us, and we have been constantly together for--let me see--all the time I have been staying here." "I know that; and when a single man devotes himself in that open way to an unmarried woman, what does it mean, if not marriage? Was it honourable of you, Bertie Roe, to behave like that?" "I do not consider myself a single man, Miss Rolph. I never shall--unless--unless--which God forbid!" "Did you tell her you did not consider yourself single?" "How could I, Miss Rolph? Do you think a man is made of wood and leather?" "Then you left her to believe that you were single, Bertie Roe; and you should be ashamed of yourself. You told her--I have it from herself--that you were not married." "Neither am I, Miss Rolph. The Divorce Court has annulled my marriage."