have never
heard her speak a sentence that was unworthy of her, not one!«
    His voice trembled with earnestness. Miriam looked at him from under her
eyebrows.
    »If any one,« he pursued, »ever threw doubt on the perfect uprightness of
Cecily's conduct, her absolute honour, I would gage my life upon the issue.«
    And in this moment he spoke with sincerity, whatever the mental process
which had brought him to such an utterance. Even Miriam could not doubt him. His
clenched fist quivered as it lay on his knee, and the gleam of firelight showed
that his eyes were moist.
    »Why do you say this?« his sister asked, still scrutinizing him.
    »To satisfy myself; to make you understand once for all what I do believe.
Have you any other opinion of her, Miriam?«
    She gave a simple negative.
    »I am not saying this,« he pursued, »in the thought that you will perhaps
repeat it to her some day. It is for my own satisfaction. If I could put it more
strongly, I would; but I will have nothing to do with exaggerations. The truth
is best expressed in the simplest words.«
    »What do you mean by honour?« Miriam inquired, when there had been a short
silence.
    »Honour?«
    »Your definitions are not generally those accepted by most people.«
    »I hope not.« He smiled. »But you know sufficiently what I mean. Deception,
for instance, is incompatible with what I understand as honour.«
    He spoke it slowly and clearly, his eyes fixed on the fire.
    »You seem to me to be attributing moral responsibility to her.«
    »What I say is this: that I believe her nature incapable of admitting the
vulgar influences to which people in general are subject. I attach no merit to
her high qualities - no more than I attach merit to the sea for being a nobler
thing than a muddy puddle. Of course I know that she cannot help being what she
is, and cannot say to herself that in future she will become this or that. How
am I inconsistent? Suppose me wrong in my estimate of her. I might then lament
that she fell below what I had imagined, but of course I should have no right to
blame her.«
    Miriam reflected; then put the question:
    »And does she hold the same opinion - with reference to you, for instance?«
    »Theoretically she does.«
    »Theoretically? If she made her opinions practical, I suppose