 third-class journey - I am, at all events, the natural person for your
thoughts to turn to.«
    Reuben laughed dispiritedly.
    »No, no, Miriam; I haven't quite got to that. You are the very last person I
should think of in such a case.«
    »Why?«
    »Simply because I am not quite so contemptible as you think me. I don't
quarrel with my sister, and come back after some years to make it up just
because I want to make a demand on her purse.«
    »You haven't accustomed me to credit you with high motives, Reuben.«
    »No. And I have never succeeded in making you understand me. I suppose it's
hopeless that you ever will. We are too different. You regard me as a vulgar
reprobate, who by some odd freak of nature happens to be akin to you. I can
picture so well what your imagination makes of me. All the instances of
debauchery and general blackguardism that the commerce of life has forced upon
your knowledge go towards completing the ideal. It's a pity. I have always felt
that you and I might have been a great deal to each other if you had had a
reasonable education. I remember you as a child rebelling against the idiocies
of your training, before your brain and soul had utterly yielded; then you were
my sister, and even then, if it had been possible, I would have dragged you away
and saved you.«
    »I thank Heaven,« said Miriam, »that my childhood was in other hands than
yours!«
    »Yes; and it is very bitter to me to hear you say so.«
    Miriam kept silence, but looked at him less disdainfully.
    »I suppose,« he said, »the people you are staying with have much the same
horror of my name as you have.«
    »You speak as loosely as you think. The Spences can scarcely respect you.«
    »You purpose remaining with them all the winter?«
    »It is quite uncertain. With what intentions have you come here? Do you wish
me to speak of you to the Spences or not?«
    He still kept looking about the room. Perhaps upon him too the baleful
southern wind was exercising its influence, for he sat listlessly when he was
not speaking, and had a weary look.
    »You may speak of me or not, as you like. I don't see that anything's to be
gained by my meeting them; but I'll
