’Exactly.  There’s no misunderstanding that.  And if I get angry I am an unpardonable brute.  Come now, you can’t be offended if I treat you as simply my equal, Rhoda.  Let me test your sincerity.  Suppose I had seen you talking somewhere with some man who seemed to interest you very much, and then—­to-day, let us say—­I heard that he had called upon you when you were alone.  I turn with a savage face and accuse you of grossly deceiving me—­in the worst sense.  What would your answer be?’

‘These are idle suppositions,’ she exclaimed scornfully.

’But the case is possible, you must admit.  I want you to realize what I am feeling.  In such a case as that, you could only turn from me with contempt.  How else can I behave to you—­conscious of my innocence, yet in the nature of things unable to prove it?’

‘Appearances are very strongly against you.’

’That’s an accident—­to me quite unaccountable.  If I charged you with dishonour you would only have your word to offer in reply.  So it is with me.  And my word is bluntly rejected.  You try me rather severely.’

Rhoda kept silence.

’I know what you are thinking.  My character was previously none of the best.  There is a prejudice against me in such a matter for your good.  My record is not immaculate; nor, I believe, is any as this.  Well, you shall hear some more plain speech, altogether man’s.  I have gone here and there, and have had my adventures like other men.  One of them you have heard about—­the story of that girl Amy Drake—­the subject of Mrs. Goodall’s righteous wrath.  You shall know the truth, and if it offends your ears I can’t help it.  The girl simply threw herself into my arms, on a railway journey, when we met by pure chance.’

‘I don’t care to hear that,’ said Rhoda, turning away.

’But you shall hear it.  That story has predisposed you to believe the worst things of me.  If I hold you by force, you shall hear every word of it.  Mary seems to have given you mere dark hints—­’

‘No; she has told me the details.  I know it all.’

’From their point of view.  Very well; that saves me a lot of narrative.  What those good people didn’t understand was the girl’s character.  They thought her a helpless innocent; she was a—­I’ll spare you the word.  She simply planned to get me into her power—­ thought I should be forced to marry her.  It’s the kind of thing that happens far oftener than you would suppose; that’s the reason why men so often smile in what you would call a brutal way when certain stories are told to other men’s discredit.  You will have to take this into account, Rhoda, before you reach satisfactory results on the questions that have occupied you so much.  I was not in the least responsible for Amy Drake’s desertion of creditable paths.  At the worst I behaved foolishly; and knowing I had done so, knowing how thankless it was to try and clear myself at her expense, I let people say what they would; it didn’t matter.  And you don’t believe me; I can see you don’t.  Sexual pride won’t let you believe me.  In such a case the man must necessarily be the villain.’