Page:Elizabeth Jordan--Tales of the city room.djvu/32

 I love as I never loved any one else, lived with us. He was sending my little sister to school. It pleased him to make a parade of what he was doing for my people. And his mother begged me to bear with him, to give him another chance, as he would go headlong to destruction if cast off entirely. I did bear with him,—I gave him every chance, and he—he—"

The woman's voice broke. The listener had felt her face flush as the other's words came to her, and now, on a sudden impulse, she took the prisoner's hand. The white fingers closed suddenly upon her own with such force that the stone in a ring she wore sank into the flesh. But the act was involuntary, for the hand was dropped again with no indication on Mrs. Brandow's face that it had been offered and accepted.

"He was like an insane man," continued the prisoner, her low voice gathering strength and force as she went on. "He brought persons to the house whom no respectable house should shelter. He forced me to receive them and humiliated me before them. I bear to-day the marks of his violence. I