I don't see what 's in your
head, Rowland, to attempt to defend Miss Light; you were the first to
cry out against her! You told me she was dangerous, and I pooh-poohed
you. You were right; you 're always right. She 's as cold and false and
heartless as she 's beautiful, and she has sold her heartless beauty to
the highest bidder. I hope he knows what he gets!"
"Oh, my son," cried Mrs. Hudson, plaintively, "how could you ever care
for such a dreadful creature?"
"It would take long to tell you, dear mother!"
Rowland's lately-deepened sympathy and compassion for Christina was
still throbbing in his mind, and he felt that, in loyalty to it, he
must say a word for her. "You believed in her too much at first," he
declared, "and you believe in her too little now."
Roderick looked at him with eyes almost lurid, beneath lowering brows.
"She is an angel, then, after all?--that 's what you want to prove!"
he cried. "That 's consoling for me, who have lost her! You 're always
right, I say; but, dear friend, in mercy, be wrong for once!"
"Oh yes, Mr. Mallet, be merciful!" said Mrs.
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