“So you both haunt the Square?”

At the question Stephen turned and faced her frankly.  “How, in Heaven’s name, does she stand him?”

“That’s a riddle.  To me he is impossible.”

“He is more than that.  He is unspeakable.”  As he looked into her eyes a deep anxiety or disturbance appeared beneath the superficial gaiety of his smile.  “The fellow had evidently had a quarrel, perhaps a permanent break, with Vetch.  He was in a kind of cold rage; and do you know what he said to me?  He told me,—­not openly, but in pretended secrecy,—­that Vetch had never married Patty’s mother—­”

For an instant Corinna gazed at him in silence.  Then her words came in a gasp of indignation.  “Of course there isn’t a word of truth in it!”

“So I said to him.  He insists that he has the proofs.  You know what it means?”

“Oh, I know—­poor Patty!  You understand why he told you?”

“I couldn’t at first see the reason; but afterward it came to me.”

“The reason is as clear as daylight.  He is infatuated, and he imagines that you stand in his way.”

“Not only that.  I think he has some idea of using whatever proofs he has to bend Vetch to his will.  He was sharp enough not to say so, for he knew that would be pure blackmail.  The ground he took was one of nauseating morality, but I inferred that he is trying to force Vetch to agree to this general strike, and that he is prepared to threaten him with some kind of exposure if he doesn’t.  This, however, was mere surmise on my part.  The fellow is as shrewd as he is unprincipled.”

When Corinna believed it was in full measure and overflowing.  “It’s not true.  I know it’s not true.”

“Has Patty told you anything?”

“Nobody has told me anything.  One doesn’t have to have a reason for knowing things—­at least one doesn’t unless one is a man.  I know it because I know it.”  Then, without waiting for his reply, she continued with cheerful firmness:  “The best way to treat scandal is to forget it.  Don’t you think that Patty improves every day?”

He reddened and looked away from her.  “Yes, she grows more attractive, I—­” While she still waited for him to complete his sentence, he shot out in an embarrassed tone:  “Corinna, do you believe in Gideon Vetch?”

For an instant Corinna hesitated.  “I believe that he is—­well, just Gideon Vetch,” she answered enigmatically.

“Just a professional politician?”

“Not at all.  He is a great deal more than that, but what that great deal is I cannot pretend to say.”

“Do you ever see him away from Patty?”

“Now and then.  He has been to the shop.”

“And you like him?”

Again she hesitated.  “Yes, I like him.”  Turning her head, she looked straight at him with a glow in her eyes.  “That is,” she corrected softly, “I should like him if it were not for John.”

“You compare him with John?”