Wh-what is that g-girl to him, anyhow ?" It was no pleasant task to hurt this man deliberately, yet, perhaps, it would be best.

Anyway, it was not in Beth Norvell's nature either to lie or to be afraid.
"He has been her friend; there are some who say her lover." He stared fixedly at her, as though she had struck him a stinging, unexpected blow.
"Him?
A-an' you s-s-say she 's on the squar ?" "Yes; I say she is on the square, because I think so.

It's a hard life she 's had to live, and no one has any right to judge her by strict rules of propriety.

I may not approve, neither do I condemn.

Good women have been deceived before now--have innocently done wrong in the eyes of the world--and this Mercedes is a woman.