Suddenly, sinking science for the moment, she looked at him very frankly and began to frown.

At the same time she let the Murray slide down to the ground, and he was so charmed with this circumstance that he made no movement to pick it up.
"You are singularly inconsistent, Mr.Mallet," she said.
"How ?" "That first day that we were in Saint Peter's you said things that inspired me.

You bade me plunge into all this.

I was all ready; I only wanted a little push; yours was a great one; here I am in mid-ocean! And now, as a reward for my bravery, you have repeatedly snubbed me." "Distinctly, then," said Rowland, "I strike you as inconsistent ?" "That is the word." "Then I have played my part very ill." "Your part?
What is your part supposed to have been ?" He hesitated a moment.

"That of usefulness, pure and simple." "I don't understand you!" she said; and picking up her Murray, she fairly buried herself in it.
That evening he said something to her which necessarily increased her perplexity, though it was not uttered with such an intention.