A portion of the impulse that led him to this speech as they passed the slaughterhouse was doubtless a throb of his own conscience over this matter of eating meat. The sight of that man with a lantern, like some ghoulish wanderer in a place of execution, impressed itself by no means pleasantly on his mind; and it was the electric vibration of this discomfort that gave his voice, as he uttered these words, a certain quivering pitch of unnecessary emphasis.

The malice in his tone communicated itself like a magnetic current to his companion, and she took her hand from his arm.

“The child has wheedled herself round Darnley. That’s all it is. The mother is willing enough, because she sees what a good unpaid servant Mattie will make. I won’t talk about it any more, and I didn’t mean to refer to it; but I think you’re simply mad to let her accept such a humiliating position. But there it is! The girl can’t have much pride, or nothing you said or they said could have made her accept such charity!”