neither meet nor correspond, she asks me how I dare
speak to her, I am naturally startled."

"We did not part on good terms."

Trefusis stretched his eyebrows, as if to stretch his memory. "If not,"
he said, "I have forgotten it, on my honor. When did we part, and
what happened? It cannot have been anything very serious, or I should
remember it."

His forgetfulness wounded Agatha. "No doubt you are well accustomed
to--" She checked herself, and made a successful snatch at her normal
manner with gentlemen. "I scarcely remember what it was, now that I
begin to think. Some trifle, I suppose. Do you like orchids?"

"They have nothing to do with our affairs at present. You are not in
earnest about the orchids, and you are trying to run away from a mistake
instead of clearing it up. That is a short-sighted policy, always."

Agatha grew alarmed, for she felt his old influence over her returning.
"I do not wish to speak of it," she said firmly.

Her firmness was lost on him. "I do not even know what it means yet," he
said, "and I want to know, for I believe there is some misunderstanding
between us, and it is the trick of your sex to perpetuate
misunderstandings by forbidding all allusions to them. Perhaps, leaving
Lyvern so hastily, I forgot to fulfil some promise, or to say farewell,
or something of that sort. But do you know how suddenly I was called
away? I got a telegram to say that Henrietta was dying, and I had only
time to change my clothes--you remember my disguise--and catch the
express. And, after all, she was dead when I arrived."

"I know that," said Agatha uneasily. "Please say no more about it."

"Not if it distresses you. Just let me hope that you did not suppose I
blamed you for your share in the matter or that I told the Janseniuses
of it. I did not. Yes, I like orchids. A plant that can subsist on a
scrap of board is an instance of natural econ--"

"YOU blame ME!" cried Agatha. "_I_ never told the Janseniuses. What
would they have thought of you if I had?"

"Far worse of you than of me, however unjustly. You were the immediate
cause of the tragedy; I only the remote one. Jansenius is not far-seeing
when his feelings are touched. Few men are."

"I don't understand you in the least. What tragedy do you mean?"

"Henrietta's death. I call it a tragedy conventionally. Seriously, of
course, it was commonplace enough."

Agatha stopped and faced him. "What do you mean by what you said just
now? You sai