Waymark hesitated, but at length told the truth.

He explained that Mrs.Casti suffered from the want of companionship, and that he had mentioned Ida's name to Julian; whence the discovery.
"Has _she_ been told about me ?" asked Ida.
"Nothing was to be said till I had spoken to you." Waymark paused, but presently continued in a more serious tone.

In recurring to that conversation with Julian, his friend's trouble spoke strongly to him once more, and overcame selfish thoughts.
"I said that I had come to know you by chance, and that--strange as it might sound--we were simply friends." He glanced for an instant at Ida; her eyes were turned to the ground.

"You will believe me," he went on quickly, "when I tell you that I really said nothing more ?" "I never doubt a word of yours," was Ida's quiet reply.
"Casti was overjoyed at the thought of finding such a friend for his wife.

Of course I told him that he must not certainly count either on your consent or on his wife's.