‘Are you a beast too?’

’Oh, yes.  But I don’t bite.  I’m the kind of beast that runs away.  I lie by the fire and purr, but at the first sign of trouble I jump for the open door.  That’s why the other fellows always got the better of me.  They knew I was a coward, and profited by the knowledge.  If my dear good uncle hadn’t died, I don’t know how I should have lived.’

‘I’m afraid you have “lived” too much.’

‘That was uncalled for.’

‘Or else your looks belie you.’

‘My looks?’

‘You’re so dissipated-looking.’

‘Dissipated-looking?  I?  Horror!’

’You’ve got such a sophisticated eye, if that suits you better.  You look blase.’

‘You’re a horrid, rude, uncomplimentary thing.’

’Oh, if you’re going to call names, I must summon my natural protector.’  She blew on her golden whistle, and up trotted the obedient Bezigue.

That evening Paul said to himself, ’I vastly fear that something serious has happened to you.  No, she’s everything you like, but she isn’t that sort.’

He was depressed, dejected; the reaction, no doubt, from the excitement of her presence.  ’She’s married, of course; and of course she’s got a lover.  And of course she’ll never care a pin for the likes of me.  And of course she sees what’s the matter with me, and is laughing in her sleeve.  And I had thought myself impervious.  Oh, damn all women.’

X.

‘Don’t stop; ride on,’ he called out to her, next morning, ’I shan’t be amusing to-day.  I’m frightfully low in my mind.’

‘Perhaps it will amuse me to study you in a new aspect,’ she said.  ‘You can entertain me with the story of your griefs.’

‘Bare my wounds to make a lady smile.  Oh, anything to oblige you.’

She leapt lightly from Bezigue, and sank upon the moss.

‘What is it all about?’

‘Oh, not what you imagine,’ said he.  ‘It’s about my debts.’

‘I had hoped it was about your sins.’

‘My sins!  I’m kept awake at night by the thought of yours.’

‘Your conscience is too sensitive.  Mine are but peccadillos.’

’You say that because you’ve no sense of moral proportion.  Are cruelty and dissimulation pecadillos?’

‘They may be even virtues.  It all depends.  Discipline and reserve!’

‘I’ll forgive you everything if you’ll tell me your name.’

‘Oh, I have debts, as well as you.’

‘What have debts to do with the question?’

‘I owe something to my reputation.’

‘If we’re going to consider our reputations, what of mine?’

‘Yours has preceded you into the country,’ she said, and drew from her pocket a small, thin volume, bound in grey cloth, with a gilt design.

‘Oh, heavens!’ cried Paul.  ‘This is how one’s past finds one out.’