I swear to you that I stand here unsullied and unstained under this untainted sky which the same God made who fashioned me.

I have known shame and grief and terror; I have lain cold and ill and sleepless; I have wandered roofless, hunted, threatened, mocked, beset by men and vice.

Soldiers have used me roughly--you yourself saw, there at the Poundridge barracks! And only you among all men saw truly.

Why should I not give to you my friendship, unashamed ?" "Give it," I said, more deeply moved than ever I had been.
"I do! I do! Rightly or wrongly, now, at last, and in the end, I give my honest heart and friendship to a man!" And with a quick and winning gesture she offered me her hand; and I took it firmly in my clasp, and fell a-trembling so I could not find a word to utter.
"Come to me to-night, Euan," she said.

"I lodge yonder.