Mary; I don't see how one could help liking her," he
remarked cautiously, with his eye on the lamp-post.

"Ah, Denham, you're so different from me. You never give yourself away.
I watched you this evening with Katharine Hilbery. My instinct is to
trust the person I'm talking to. That's why I'm always being taken in, I
suppose."

Denham seemed to be pondering this statement of Rodney's, but, as a
matter of fact, he was hardly conscious of Rodney and his revelations,
and was only concerned to make him mention Katharine again before they
reached the lamp-post.

"Who's taken you in now?" he asked. "Katharine Hilbery?"

Rodney stopped and once more began beating a kind of rhythm, as if he
were marking a phrase in a symphony, upon the smooth stone balustrade of
the Embankment.

"Katharine Hilbery," he repeated, with a curious little chuckle. "No,
Denham, I have no illusions about that young woman. I think I made that
plain to her to-night. But don't run away with a false impression,"
he continued eagerly, turning and linking his arm through Denham's, as
though to prevent him from escaping; and, thus compelled, Denham passed
the monitory lamp-post, to which, in passing, he breathed an excuse, for
how could he break away when Rodney's arm was actually linked in his?
"You must not think that I have any bitterness against her--far from it.
It's not altogether her fault, poor girl. She lives, you know, one of
those odious, self-centered lives--at least, I think them odious for a
woman--feeding her wits upon everything, having control of everything,
getting far too much her own way at home--spoilt, in a sense, feeling
that every one is at her feet, and so not realizing how she hurts--that
is, how rudely she behaves to people who haven't all her advantages.
Still, to do her justice, she's no fool," he added, as if to warn
Denham not to take any liberties. "She has taste. She has sense. She can
understand you when you talk to her. But she's a woman, and there's an
end of it," he added, with another little chuckle, and dropped Denham's
arm.

"And did you tell her all this to-night?" Denham asked.

"Oh dear me, no. I should never think of telling Katharine the truth
about herself. That wouldn't do at all. One has to be in an attitude of
adoration in order to get on with Katharine.

"Now I've learnt that she's refused to marry him why don't I go home?"
Denham thought to himself. But he went on walking beside Rodney, and for
a