He wished to convict her of ignorance.

Her cheeks were now burning, beyond a doubt, and she felt revengeful.
'I advise you to make inquiries at a shipping-office,' was her distant reply.
'It seems'-- he was smiling at Nancy--'I shall have to go to New York, and then take the Cuba mail.' 'Are you going to join your friend in business ?' 'Business, I fear, is hardly my vocation.' There was a tremor on Nancy's lips, and about her eyelids.

She said abruptly: 'I thought you were perhaps in business ?' 'Did you?
What suggested it ?' Tarrant looked fixedly at her; in his expression, as in his voice, she detected a slight disdain, and that decided her to the utterance of the next words.
'Oh'-- she had assumed an ingenuous air--'there's the Black Lead that bears your name.

Haven't you something to do with it ?' She durst not watch him, but a change of his countenance was distinctly perceptible, and for the moment caused her a keen gratification.
His eyes had widened, his lips had set themselves; he looked at once startled and mortified.
'Black lead ?' The words fell slowly, in a voice unlike that she had been hearing.

'No.