"What a mishap! Well, I am glad to hear the trip went pleasantly."
"If you are, something has gone wrong with you----"
"I assure you, you are." He took the sunshade from her hand. "You remember the fable about the man that tried to oblige everybody? He wasn’t a refiner--he was a mere miller. At the start I really did my best for three days to entertain Dolly’s lovely vampire and at the end of that time she made a face at me--and wound up by telling Dolly my head was full of another woman. Then--to be quite shamefully frank--I had to dodge Lottie Nelson’s apologies for her unpleasant temper on an evening that you remember; altogether my lot was not a happy one. My head was full of another woman. You remember you said nobody could resist her charm? I thought of it. What is charm? I often asked myself. I saw nothing of charm in that charming woman. Who can define it? But penetration! She could read you like a printed book. We talked one night of American women. I dared to say they were the loveliest in the world. She grew incensed. ’They know absolutely nothing!’ she exclaimed. ’That is why we like them’ I answered. ’They are innocent; you are as corrupt as I am.’ Then she would call me a hypocrite." He stopped suddenly and Alice felt his eyes keenly upon her. "Is it possible you do not believe what I am saying?"
"Innocent women believe whatever they are told."
"I don’t deserve sarcasm. I am telling the simple truth. For once I am wholly at fault, Alice. I don’t know what the matter is. _What_ has happened?"
"Nothing has happened; only to-day I seem especially stupid."
"Are you as frank with me as I am with you?"
She made no answer. He drew back as if momentarily discouraged. "If you no longer believe me--what can I do?"
"It isn’t at all that I do not believe you--what difference should it make whether or no I believe you? Suppose I were frank enough to admit that something I heard of you had disappointed me a little. What credit should I have for commenting on what in no way concerns me?"
"Anything heard to my discredit should be carefully received. Believe the best of me as long as you can. It will never be necessary, Alice, for any one to tell you I am unworthy; when that day comes you will know it first from me. And if I ever am unworthy, it will not be because I willed to be--only because through my baseness I never could know what it means to be worthy of a woman far above me."