Here he was anchored to a rotting houseboat, soon to be anchored to it still more emphatically by the presence of the corpse, and here was the country buzzing about him, and young ladies already proposing pleasure parties to surround his house at night.

Well, that meant the gallows; and much he cared for that.

What troubled him now was Julia's indescribable levity.

That girl would scrape acquaintance with anybody; she had no reserve, none of the enamel of the lady.

She was familiar with a brute like his landlord; she took an immediate interest (which she lacked even the delicacy to conceal) in a creature like Jimson! He could conceive her asking Jimson to have tea with her! And it was for a girl like this that a man like Gideon--Down, manly heart! He was interrupted by a sound that sent him whipping behind the door in a trice.