tone of inexpressible contempt. "When did
you ever act from any generous regard for
others? What good did you ever do to anybody?"

"You might ask, with equal justice,
what good I ever did to myself."

"In a certain sense, yes; because to gratify
a mere momentary wish is hardly doing one's
self good."

"Then I have, at all events, followed the
Biblical precept, and treated my neighbor very
much as I treat myself."

"I did think," continued Bertha, without
heeding the remark, "that you were at bottom
kind-hearted, but too hopelessly well-bred ever
to commit an act of any decided complexion,
either good or bad. Now I see that I have
misjudged you, and that you are capable of
outraging the most sacred feelings of a woman's
heart in mere wantonness, or for the sake of
satisfying a base curiosity, which never could
have entered the mind of an upright and generous man."

The hard, benumbed look in Ralph's face
thawed in the warmth of her presence, and her
words, though stern, touched a secret spring in
his heart. He made two or three vain attempts