“Horrible!  How?  Why?”

“Oh, Jerry.  Think for a moment.  It was natural in me, wasn’t it?  If I hadn’t been jealous of you I couldn’t have loved you very much, could I?”

“But horrible thoughts!  I don’t understand.  You might think that there was something between Una and me if you chose to be suspicious, but to think unpleasant things of her, I can’t see—­”

“You’re making it very difficult for me—­you’re so strange,” she murmured.  “Isn’t it something that I’ve lowered my pride to the earth in coming here to you?  That I’ve given up Chan?  That I’m pleading to you for forgiveness?”

“It is, of course.  I do forgive you,” he murmured

“Oh, Jerry, if you knew how I had longed to hear you say that—­if you knew!”

All this while Jerry had been standing beside her in the path while the girl sat on the rock.  I could tell this from the sounds of their voices.  In spite of her accents of endearment, notes which she played with the deftest touch, I could understand that Master Jerry was still a little upon his dignity.

“I do forgive you,” he repeated, “but I don’t just know what your insinuations meant, Marcia.”

“Insinuations!  Oh, Jerry!”

“Well, what were they?  You didn’t accuse Una of anything, or me.  But you meant something—­something unpleasant.  Una was very much disturbed—­”

“Oh, she was?” No self-control could have concealed the tiny note of exultation.

“Yes, disturbed and angry.  What did you mean, Marcia?”

There was an effective pause.  What grimaces she was making for his benefit I’m sure I can’t imagine, but I hope they were worthy of her talents.

“Poor, dear Jerry!” she sighed.  “You’re so innocent.  I sometimes wonder whether you’re really as innocent as you seem.”

“I’m innocent of wronging Una,” he said with some spirit.

She couldn’t restrain a short laugh at the ingenuousness of the remark and its tone.

“There are ways and ways of wronging girls, Jerry,” she said slowly.  I couldn’t see her face, of course, but I knew that her eyes must have been searching him sidelong under their lashes with peculiar avidity.  “Of course, I don’t say that there was anything wrong, but you’ll admit that Una’s hunting you out the way she did was most imprudent.”

“No, I don’t admit it,” said Jerry.  “If Una was imprudent, so are you, here, today.”

“Jerry!” The girl started up, one of her tall French heels within reach of my fingers.  If her heel had been her vulnerable spot I must have struck it at once, like a viper.

Jerry apparently stood his ground, for the image of Una must have still been fresh in his memory.

“What is the difference, Marcia?” he asked calmly.  “Will you tell me?  Do you think I could hurt you?”

She sank upon the rock again, her tone almost too plaintive.