hat I wanted you
to know, at least, that it took a--a strong necessity to make me go into
the matter--at this time.... I wanted to tell you that--personally--I've
been very sorry about it...."

She hesitated a moment, and then said:

"I don't doubt that.... I haven't doubted it since I stopped to think."

And if this was disloyalty to papa, Cally felt that she could not help
it.... What, after all, did she know about it? Surely it was all a men's
matter, a mere question of "reform," in which some thought one way and
some another, and each side said hard things without meaning them
exactly. Probably papa would be the last person to wish her to
interfere....

"Thank you," he replied, it seemed with feeling in his voice. And
walking on, looking straight before him, he added:

"There was one thing more ... Ah--pardon me."

The young doctor carried a cane, but used it principally for swinging
and lunging. In view of his infirmity, Cally had begun by walking more
slowly than was her custom. It had soon developed, however, that he was
a rapid walker, and of absent-minded habit as well, particularly when
talking. So, throughout the brief walk, her difficulty was to keep
apace with him.

"What you said just now--my scolding you about the Works.... I realize
that it must have seemed peculiar to you, and--and--weak--unmanly--my
pursuing you so about a--a--purely business matter. Of course you must
have felt that if I had criticisms to make, I should have taken them to
your father--instead of inflicting them on you, all the time."

He paused; but the girl said nothing. She had, in fact, speculated
considerably on this very point: how could she possibly have any
responsibility for the way papa ran his business? It occurred to her to
ask the man plainly whether he considered that she had; but she did not
do so, perhaps fearing that he might reply in the affirmative....

"I once tried to explain it, in a way," he went on, hurriedly. "I said
that I didn't know your father.... You naturally considered that merely
a--a foolish sort of--claim--explaining nothing. I suppose you've
forgotten all this, but--"

"No, I remember."

"Then let me say that--the other day, when I saw you--I had no idea of
mentioning the Works to you, other than to explain my position--not an
_idea_.... And then, when we talked--well, I did," he said with a kind
of naked ingenuousness, as if no one could have been more surprised
about it all than he...