e strengthened; he needn't in
the least be anxious for her. What would once more have been distinct
to him had he tried to make it so was that, as Mrs. Newsome was
essentially all moral pressure, the presence of this element was almost
identical with her own presence. It wasn't perhaps that he felt he was
dealing with her straight, but it was certainly as if she had been
dealing straight with HIM. She was reaching him somehow by the
lengthened arm of the spirit, and he was having to that extent to take
her into account; but he wasn't reaching her in turn, not making her
take HIM; he was only reaching Sarah, who appeared to take so little of
him. "Something has clearly passed between you and Chad," he presently
said, "that I think I ought to know something more about. Does he put
it all," he smiled, "on me?"

"Did you come out," she asked, "to put it all on HIM?"

But he replied to this no further than, after an instant, by saying:
"Oh it's all right. Chad I mean's all right in having said to
you--well anything he may have said. I'll TAKE it all--what he does
put on me. Only I must see him before I see you again."

She hesitated, but she brought it out. "Is it absolutely necessary you
should see me again?"

"Certainly, if I'm to give you any definite word about anything."

"Is it your idea then," she returned, "that I shall keep on meeting you
only to be exposed to fresh humiliation?"

He fixed her a longer time. "Are your instructions from Mrs. Newsome
that you shall, even at the worst, absolutely and irretrievably break
with me?"

"My instructions from Mrs. Newsome are, if you please, my affair. You
know perfectly what your own were, and you can judge for yourself of
what it can do for you to have made what you have of them. You can
perfectly see, at any rate, I'll go so far as to say, that if I wish
not to expose myself I must wish still less to expose HER." She had
already said more than she had quite expected; but, though she had also
pulled up, the colour in her face showed him he should from one moment
to the other have it all. He now indeed felt the high importance of his
having it. "What is your conduct," she broke out as if to
explain--"what is your conduct but an outrage to women like US? I mean
your acting as if there can be a doubt--as between us and such
another--of his duty?"

He thought a moment. It was rather much to deal with at once; not only
the question itself, but the sore abyss