'
'You are God's child,' said Falconer, who stood looking on with his
eyes shining, but otherwise in a state of absolute composure.
'Am I? Am I? You won't forget to send for me, sir?'
'That I won't,' he answered.
She turned instantly towards the woman, and snapped her fingers in
her face.
'I don't care that for you,' she cried. 'You dare to touch me now,
and I'll bite you.'
'Come, come, Nelly, you mustn't be rude,' said Falconer.
'No, sir, I won't no more, leastways to nobody but she. It's she
makes me do all the wicked things, it is.'
She snapped her fingers in her face again, and then burst out
crying.
'She will leave you alone now, I think,' said Falconer. 'She knows
it will be quite as well for her not to cross me.'
This he said very significantly, as he turned to the door, where he
bade them a general good-night. When we reached the street, I was
too bewildered to offer any remark. Falconer was the first to
speak.
'It always comes back upon me, as if I had never known it before,
that women like some of those were of the first to understand our
Lord.'
'Some of them wouldn't have understood him any more than the
Pharisee, though.'
'I'm not so sure of that. Of course there are great differences.
There are good and bad amongst them as in every class. But one
thing is clear to me, that no indulgence of passion destroys the
spiritual nature so much as respectable selfishness.'
'I am afraid you will not get society to agree with you,' I said,
foolishly.
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