innocence.

"Think of you?" she repeated. "Nothing. Why?"

He drew a deep breath.

"Come now, Esther, you know you've been wondering about what you saw
this afternoon. It wouldn't be human not to. What conclusion did you
come to in regard to my stepmother and me?"

"Oh," she replied indifferently, "I don't know. What do you want me to
think?"

"Poker face! There's nothing to be got out of you, is there?" he said,
smiling. "I see I'll have to tell you--and yet I feel such a beast to
say anything about it. Besides, there's a bit I can't tell; it
wouldn't be decent."

Esther interposed quickly:

"There's no reason why you should say anything. Please don't, if you'd
rather not."

"But I'd like to; I couldn't let you get wrong ideas."

He halted again, frowning at the lighted end of his cigarette.

"Oh, well, it was like this. About a week ago I had a sort of a
brush-up with Therese. She was very angry and so was I, and I laid
down the law to her a bit. Since then we've scarcely spoken.... I
don't believe I had said a word to her until I found her in my room,
early this afternoon. Well, this evening I was on my way to dress, and
when I passed the sitting-room she was in the doorway. She asked me to
come inside, said she wanted to explain something to me."

"Oh! So that was it?"

"She was extraordinarily nice, appealing, and all that. She admitted
it was a stupid lie about coming to get a book, that she had tapped on
the door and thought she heard me say 'Come in.' Then when she was
inside she found out she was mistaken, and was about to go out again,
when I appeared, and frightened the life out of her by the suspicious
look on my face, so she just said the first thing that came into her
head. She made me feel rather a brute. She said, 'You know you always
terrify me, Roger, you are so hard, so intolerant. You always think
the worst of me.' I have to admit that's true. I may not have given
her a chance."

She waited for him to go on. He continued to frown, not looking at
her, plainly troubled in his mind.

"I can't tell you all she said, but she told me something about the
scene we'd had that put rather a different light on matters. She told
me how sorry she was, and I think she meant it. She was quite upset.
Do you know, Esther, I felt rather ashamed of myself for--for not
having tried to make a friend of her. It makes me out a frightful
prig. Looking at things from her point o