She smiled rather sadly, I thought, and shook her head.

“Yes, Agnes, my good Angel! Always my good Angel!”

“If I were, indeed, Trotwood,” she returned, “there is one thing that I should set my heart on very much.”

I looked at her inquiringly; but already with a foreknowledge of her meaning.

“On warning you,” said Agnes, with a steady glance, “against your bad Angel.”

“My dear Agnes,” I began, “if you mean Steerforth⁠—”

“I do, Trotwood,” she returned.

“Then, Agnes, you wrong him very much. He my bad Angel, or anyone’s! He, anything but a guide, a support, and a friend to me! My dear Agnes! Now, is it not unjust, and unlike you, to judge him from what you saw of me the other night?”