But Evan's heart was hard. "Insult you!" he cried. "I like that! What have you been doing to me lately?"
"If you were capable of thinking, you would see that I could not have acted otherwise!" she said.
"You have me there," said Evan coolly. "For I don't see the necessity of being a blackmailer."
Corinna jumped up and stamped her foot. Her face reddened, and two large tears rolled down her cheeks. "Don't you dare to use that word to me again, you fool!"
Evan laughed delightedly. "Why shy at the word and commit the deed?"
"You know nothing of the circumstances!" she stormed. "You have neither sense nor feeling! You take all your ideas ready made from others. You are as empty as a drum!"
"Bravo!" he cried. "Keep it up if it makes you feel any better!"
"If it is a crime to extort money from a foul old robber and give it to the poor, all right, I'm a criminal! I glory in it! I would do it all over again!"
"I don't deny one has a sneaking sympathy with a life of crime," Evan said, affecting a judicial air. "But after all, law is law. You have to make your choice. I chose to stay inside the law, and naturally I have to uphold it like everybody on my side."
"You're a nice upholder of the law!" she cried. "You're just trying to get back at me!"
Evan grinned. "You're so frank, Corinna. But after all, being on the side of the law gives me an advantage now, doesn't it?"
"Yes, if you want to take the pay of a scoundrel like Deaves."
"Oh, I was fired some days ago. I'm working on my own now."
"I dare say. I admit I don't mind your blackmailing operations half as much as the other thing."
"Those fellows on the _Ernestina_; to take advantage of their wanting you, and use them for your own ends."
"Everything was understood between us. Everything was open and aboveboard."
"Of course. But they were already enslaved, you see. And you forced them to serve your pride and arrogance. You queened it over them. That makes me more indignant than blackmailing a usurer, for the other thing's a crime against a man's best feelings, and I'm a man myself."
"Why should I be. _I_ wouldn't stand for the brotherhood. I know you gave me--or I took--more than you ever gave them."
There was a silence. Corinna kept her eyes down. It was impossible to say of what she was thinking. But her passion of anger visibly subsided. She murmured at last: