But I've lost my situation at the railway, and I've got my own interests to look after, and I don't know what may happen if I let other women come between him and me.

That's where the shoe pinches, don't you see?
I'm not easy in my mind when I see him leaving you mistress here to do just what you like.
No offense! I speak out--I do.

I want to know what you are about all by yourself in this room?
How did you pick up with the Major?
I never heard him speak of you before to-day." Under all the surface selfishness and coarseness of this strange girl there was a certain frankness and freedom which pleaded in her favor--to my mind, at any rate.

I answered frankly and freely on my side.
"Major Fitz-David is an old friend of my husband's," I said, "and he is kind to me for my husband's sake.

He has given me permission to look in this room--" I stopped, at a loss how to describe my employment in terms which should tell her nothing, and which should at the same time successfully set her distrust of me at rest.
"To look about in this room--for what ?" she asked.