He'll be here before morning." But Mary followed across the room and touched the shoulder of Jack.

It was as if she touched a wild wolf, for the lad whirled and struck her hand away in an outburst of silent fury.
"Why shouldn't I stay?
He hasn't--he hasn't changed--Jack ?" The insolent black eyes looked up and scanned her slowly from head to foot.

Then he laughed in the same deliberate manner.
"No, I guess he thinks as much of you now as he ever did." "You are lying to me," said the girl faintly, but the terror in her eyes said another thing.
"He thinks as much of you as he ever did.

He thinks as much of you as he does of the rest of the soft-handed, pretty-faced fools who listen to him and believe him.

I suppose--" He broke off to laugh heartily again, with a jarring, forced note which escaped Mary.
"I suppose that he made love to you one minute and the next told you that bad luck--something about the cross--kept him away from you ?" Each slow word was like a blow of a fist.