Instead of answering before he picked up the tobacco he answered after--in surly self-possession, and in one word--"No." "Do you know nothing about her ?" He devoted himself doggedly to the filling of his pipe.

"Nothing." "On your word of honor, as a gentleman ?" "On my word of honor, as a gentleman." He put back his tobacco-pouch in his pocket.

His handsome face was as hard as stone.

His clear blue eyes defied all the girls in England put together to see into _his_ mind.

"Have you done, Miss Lundie ?" he asked, suddenly changing to a bantering politeness of tone and manner.
Blanche saw that it was hopeless--saw that she had compromised her own interests by her own headlong act.