She nodded.

“That’s queer,” he went on, “because I’d got the same impression about you.”

It was Drusilla’s turn to be aghast.  She was a little surprised at not being offended, too.

“What made you think that?” she managed to ask, after getting command of herself.

“What makes one think anything?  However,” he conceded, “I dare say I’m wrong.”

“That’s a very good conclusion to come to.  I advise you to keep to it.”

“I will if you’ll do the same about me.”

She seized the opening to carry the attack back in his direction.

“I can’t make a bargain of that kind, Peter.  The scientific mind bases its conclusions on—­observed phenomena.”

“Which I guess is the reason why the scientific mind is so often wrong.  I’ve had a good deal to do with it in the copper-mine business.  It’s always barking up the wrong tree.  I’ve often heard it said that the clever scientist is generally a poor reasoner.”

“Well, perhaps he is.  But I wasn’t reasoning.  I was merely going by instinct when I thought you might have a special motive for helping Cousin Henry.  If you had, you know, it wouldn’t be any harm.”

“It mightn’t be any harm; but would it be any good?”

“Well, that might depend a good deal—­on you.”

“On me?  How so?  I don’t know what you’re driving at.”

“I’m not driving at anything.  I’m only speculating.  I’m wondering what I should do if I were in your place—­with all your advantages.”

“Rot, Drusilla!”

“If I were a man and had a rival,” Drusilla persisted, “I should be awfully honorable in the stand I’d take toward him—­just like you.  But if anything miscarried—­”

“You don’t expect anything to miscarry?”

She shook her head.  “No; I don’t expect it.  But it might be a fortunate thing if it did.”

“You don’t mean to infer that this man Ashley mightn’t come up to the scratch?”

“Colonel Ashley has come up to a good many scratches in his time.  He’s not likely to fail in this one.”

“Well, then, what more is there to it?”

“There’s a good deal more.  There are things I can’t explain, and which you wouldn’t understand if I did.  Coming up to the scratch isn’t everything.  Charles the First came up to the scratch when he walked up and had his head cut off; but there was more to be said.”

“And you mean that your Colonel Ashley would be brave enough to walk up and have his head cut off?”

“I know he’d be brave enough.  It’s no question of courage.  He had the Victoria Cross before he was thirty.  But it’s a noble head; and it might be a pity it should have to fall.”

“But I don’t understand why it should.”