'I will not be peered at. At revels, clowns grin through a horse-collar――but to cut grimaces through a slit in a wall is not a Christmas pastime.' 'It is not forbidden to look on at a dance.' 'I will not be stared at like a bearded woman or a spotted boy at a show. Why have you pursued me?' 'I have not pursued you. I will not say that I was not thinking of you as I came along the lane and stumbled on you, for I was.' 'And what, pray, were your thoughts? Here is a penny to pay for them, though I warrant that it is beyond their worth.' 'I was thinking of you. Yes. I saw that you were not enjoying yourself.' 'I was enjoying myself bravely.' 'No, you were not. You were vastly unhappy. I saw how your mouth worked. You came away, not because I stared you out of countenance, but because you could no longer restrain your tears.' 'It is false. I came away because I would not be exposed to any rude Peeping Tom.' 'Peeping Jack saw you――naked as Godiva――that is your bruised and wretched soul, that was bare to me. I saw how it suffered.' She stamped, but said nothing. Her bosom was heaving with passion, but she switched to and fro with the thorn branch as a precaution lest he should approach; then she turned and struck at the improvised gate as though she must strike something; after that, feeling that her courage would give way unless she looked the lad full in the face, she reverted to her former position, fronting him. 'I really do not know what concern one has with the other,' said Jack. 'Stand aside that I may remove the poles; then go through yourself or let me pass.' But she would not do this, or did not hear his demand. There was something brooding in her mind that must out before they separated. 'Yes,' she said, with suppressed emotion, 'we have a good deal to do with each other. You know what folk say of mother and of me; not that I care――no, not this.' She bit off a piece of the bark from the thorn twig and spat it forth. 'If there had been the smallest foundation in what they say, why did they not set the constables to work and have mother and me arrested and sent to prison?' 'No one has accused _you_ of any crime.' 'But they do charge mother, and that is the same thing. You do. I remember what you said when we met last, on the undercliff. If the money we have now to spend were indeed yours, I would dash it in your face, shower it over your head, strew the ground with it, not keep one farthing. I would strip off my smart clothes and go forth in my old patched gown once more to peddle tapes and thimbles. You believe my mother is wicked? You believe it? Answer me.' 'Nothing, as you say, has been proved.' 'Then you have no right to accuse her. You have no right to believe us capable of having done it――of having one penny which is not justly our own.' 'I do not know what to think. Of one thing I am quite certain――you are blameless.'