I listened in patience--with pleasure when I thought of what she would have thought (and said) had she known the real facts.

I was well pleased to have got off so easily.
RUPERT'S JOURNAL--_Continued_.
_April_ 10, 1907.
For some days after what I call "the episode" I was in a strange condition of mind.

I did not take anyone--not even Aunt Janet--into confidence.

Even she dear, and open-hearted and liberal-minded as she is, might not have understood well enough to be just and tolerant; and I did not care to hear any adverse comment on my strange visitor.

Somehow I could not bear the thought of anyone finding fault with her or in her, though, strangely enough, I was eternally defending her to myself; for, despite my wishes, embarrassing thoughts _would_ come again and again, and again in all sorts and variants of queries difficult to answer.