She wished to be more than that, and she took refuge in flirting, simply to excite his jealousy and make him feel strongly about her.

He has felt strongly, and he was feeling strongly now; he was feeling passionately--that was my whole contention.

But he had perhaps never made it plain to those rather near-sighted little mental eyes of hers, and he had let her suppose something that could n't fail to rankle in her mind and torment it.

'You have let her suppose,' I said, 'that you were thinking of me, and the poor girl has been jealous of me.

I know it, but from nothing she herself has said.