16
'I am not a moral sort of fellow,' he said, 'and I never make
any pretensions to the character of a moral sort of fellow. I
am as immoral as need be. At the same time, in bringing any
distress upon the lady who is the subject of the present con
versation, or in unfortunately compromising her in any way, or
in committing myself by any expression of sentiments towards her,
not perfectly reconcilable with - in fact with - the domestic hearth;
or in taking any advantage of her father's being a machine, or of
her brother's being a whelp, or of her husband's being a bear; I
beg to be allowed to assure you that I have had no particularly
evil intentions, but have glided on from one step to another
with a smoothness so perfectly diabolical, that I had not the
slightest idea the catalogue was half so long until I began to
turn it over. Whereas I find,' said Mr. James Harthouse, in con
clusion, 'that it is really in several volumes.'
Though he said all this in his frivolous way, the way seemed,
for that once, a conscious polishing of but an ugly surface. He
was silent for a moment; and then proceeded with a more selfpossessed
air, though with traces of vexation and disappointment that would
not be polished out.
'After what has been just now represented to me, in a manner I
find it impossible to doubt - I know of hardly any other source
from which I could have accepted it so readily
Sissy's face sufficiently showed that her appeal to him was not
finished.
'You spoke,' he resumed, as she raised her eyes to him again, 'of
your first object. I may assume that there is a second to be
mentioned?
•Yes
'Will you oblige me by confiding it?'
'Mr. Harthouse,' returned Sissy, with a blending of gentleness and
steadiness that quite defeated him, and with a simple confidence in
his being bound to do what she required, that held him at a singular
disadvantage, 'the only reparation that remains with you, is to leave
here immediately and finally. I am quite sure that you can mitigate
in no other way the wrong and harm you have done. I am quite sure
that it is the only compensation you have left it in your power to
make. I do not say that it is much, or that it is enough; but it is
something, and it is necessary. Therefore, though without any other
authority than I have given you, and even without the knowledge of
any other person than yourself and myself, I ask you to depart from
this place to-night, under an obligation never to return to it.'
