For a time the opportunities dazzled me; ambition drew me on, and I knew what I could do." He stopped again, and once more there was a soft rustle of dresses, and a murmur, as those who listened gave inarticulate expression to their feelings.

Moving a little, he looked steadily at Maud Barrington and her aunt, who sat close together.
"Then," he said, very slowly, "it was borne in upon me that I could not persist in deceiving you.

Courthorne, I fancied, could not return to trouble me, but the confidence that little by little you placed in me rendered it out of the question.

Still, I saw that I could save some at least at Silverdale from drifting to disaster, and there was work for me here which would go a little way in reparation, and now that it is done I was about to bid you good-by, and ask you not to think too hardly of me." There was a moment's intense silence until once more Dane rose up, and pointed to Courthorne sitting with half-closed eyes, dusty, partly dazed by indulgence, and with the stamp of dissolute living on him, in his chair.

Then he glanced at Winston's bronzed face, which showed quietly resolute at the bottom of the table.
"Whatever we would spare you and ourselves, sir, we must face the truth," he said.