think I have ever hated Vere."

"But me?"

"Do you know why I told Vere she might read your books?"

"Why?"

"Because I thought they might make her feel differently towards you."

"Less--less kindly?"

"Yes."

She spoke very quietly, but he felt--he did not know why--that it had
cost her very much to say what she had said.

"You wanted Vere to think badly of me!"

He was honoring her for the moral courage which enabled her to tell
him. Yet he felt as if she had struck him. And so absolutely was he
accustomed to delicate tenderness, and the most thoughtful, anxious
kindness from her, that he suffered acutely and from a double distress.
The thing itself was cruel and hurt him. But that Hermione had done
it hurt him far more. He could hardly believe it. That by any road
she could travel to such an action seemed incredible to him. He stood,
realizing it. And the bitter sharpness of his suffering made him
understand something. In all its fulness he understood what Hermione's
tenderness had been in his life for many, many years. And then--his mind
seemed to take another step. "Why does a woman do such a thing as this?"
he asked himself. "Why does such a woman as Hermione do such a thing?"
And he knew what her suffering must have been, and how her heart must
have been storm-tossed, before it was driven to succumb to such an
impulse.

And he came quite close to her. And he felt a strange, sudden nearness
to her that was no nearness of body.

"Hermione," he said, "I could never judge your character by that action.
Don't--don't judge mine by any cruelty of which I have been guilty
during this summer. You have told me something that it was very
difficult for you to tell. I have something to tell you. And it is--it
is not easy to tell."

"Tell it me."

He looked at her. He was now quite close to her, and could see the
outline of her face but not the expression in her eyes.

"My interest in Vere increased. I believed it to be an interest aroused
in me by the discovery of this talent in her. I believed the new
fondness I felt for her to be a very natural fondness, caused by her
charming confidence in me. Our little secret drew us together. And I
understand now, Hermione, that it seemed to set you apart from us. I
believe I understand all now, all the circumstances that have seemed
strange to me this summer. I wanted Vere's talent to develop naturally,
unhindered, unaffected--I thought it was merely that--and I beca