Was it ?" "No.

It was mine, most of it." "Not all--not half! We did not know how; that is the wretched explanation of it all." "And we could never have learned; that's the rest of the answer.

But the fault is not there." "I know; 'better to bear the ills we have.'" "Yes; more respectable to bear them.

Let us drop this in decency's name, Alixe!" After a silence, she began: "One more thing--I must know it; and I am going to ask you--if I may.

Shall I ?" He smiled cordially, and she laughed as though confiding a delightful bit of news to him: "Do you regard me as sufficiently important to dislike me ?" "I do not--dislike you." "Is it stronger than dislike, Phil ?" "Y-es." "Contempt ?" "No." "What is it ?" "It is that--I have not yet--become--reconciled." "To my--folly ?" "To mine." She strove to laugh lightly, and failing, raised her glass to her lips again.
"Now you know," he said, pitching his tones still lower.