never hoped to make any. But when detection came, it was upon _me_ that
the disgrace and ruin fell; while the man for whom I had done wrong--the
man who had made me his tool--turned his back upon me, and refused to
utter one word in my justification, though he was in no danger himself,
and the lightest word from his lips might have saved me. That was a hard
case, wasn't it, Madge?"

"Hard!" cried the girl, with her nostrils quivering and her hands
clenched; "it was cruel, dastardly, infamous!"

"From that day, Margaret, I was a ruined man. The brand of society was
upon me. The world would not let me live honestly, and the love of life
was too strong in me to let me face death. I tried to live dishonestly,
and I led a wild, rackety, dare-devil kind of a life, amongst men who
found they had a skilful tool, and knew how to use me. They did use me
to their heart's content, and left me in the lurch when danger came. I
was arrested for forgery, tried, found guilty, and transported for life.
Don't flinch, girl! don't turn so white! You must have heard something
of this whispered and hinted at often enough before to-day. You may as
well know the whole truth. I was transported, for life, Madge; and for
thirteen years I toiled amongst the wretched, guilty slaves in Norfolk
Island--that was the favourite place in those days for such as me--and
at the end of that time, my conduct having been approved of by my
gaolers, the governor sent for me, gave me a good-service certificate,
and I went into a counting-house and served as a clerk. But I got a kind
of fever in my blood, and night and day I only thought of one thing, and
that was my chance of escape. I did escape,--never you mind how, that's
a long story,--and I got back to England, a free man; a free man, Madge,
_I_ thought; but the world soon told me another story. I was a felon, a
gaol-bird; and I was never more to lift my head amongst honest people. I