It hurts me because of the honor in which I hold you, because I cannot bear to see taint approach you.

Why, when I saw you and that woman together on the trail, I--you cannot understand what I suffered." "Taint ?" There was a tightening about her lips which he did not notice, and a just perceptible lustre of victory lighted her eyes.
"Yes, taint,--contamination," he reiterated.

"There are some things which it were not well for a good woman to understand.

One cannot dabble with mud and remain spotless." "That opens the field wide." She clasped and unclasped her hands gleefully.

"You have said that her name was Lucile; you display a knowledge of her; you have given me facts about her; you doubtless retain many which you dare not give; in short, if one cannot dabble and remain spotless, how about you ?" "But I am--" "A man, of course.