called
upon to have any opinion as to whether you're right, nor as to whether
you liked doing it or not."

"That last bit's unfair, anyhow," he declared indignantly.

"Fair and unfair! Man, man, do you suppose I'm worrying about things
like that?"

I had lost control for a moment. He was not angry with me; he seemed to
understand, and patted my shoulder affectionately.

"Of course I know you didn't like doing it," I growled. "But does that
make things any better?"

"Tell her I didn't like doing it," he said. "If only she understood why
I had to do it!"

Well, from neither of the worlds can defiance look for mercy.

CHAPTER XVI

NOT PROVEN

In the stern condemnation of moral delinquencies, when such are
discovered or conjectured, we may be content to find nothing but what is
praiseworthy; the simultaneous exhibition of a hungry curiosity about
them is one of those features of human nature which it is best to accept
without comment--if only for the reason that no man can be sure that he
does not in some degree share it. In Catsford at this time it was
decidedly prominent. The place went wild on the news that Sir John
Aspenick, happening to be in Paris on a flying visit, thought that he
saw Jenny go by as he stood outside the Cafe de la Paix: great was the
disappointment that Sir John could not contrive even to think that he
had seen Octon with her! Lady Sarah Lacey, working on the feminine clew
of Jenny's having departed luggageless, set inquiries afoot among London
dressmakers, with the happy result of revealing the fact that Jenny had
bought a stock of several articles of wearing apparel: the news worked
back to Chat from one of the dressmakers, and from Chat I had it, with
more details of the wearing apparel that my memory carries. Mrs. Jepps
waylaid Chat--who had timidly ventured into the town under a pressing
need of finding some very special form of needle--in the main street and
tried the comparative method, not at all a bad mode of investigation
where manners forbid direct questions. She told Chat numbers of stories
of other "sad cases" and looked to see how Chat "took" them--hoping to
draw, augur-like, conclusions from Chat's expression. I myself--well, I
would not be uncharitable. My friends were all honorable men; they might
naturally conclude that I was depressed and lonely; why look farther for
the cause of the frequent visits from them which I enjoyed? Bindlecombe
and a dozen more so hono