But the child had not expected him to know more than that; and, her own knowledge of the hopeless truth, plainly enough, was the key to that note of bitterness which he had detected at times, and even spoken of--that curious maturity forced by unhappy self-knowledge, that apathetic indifference stirred at moments to a quick sensitive alertness almost resembling self-defence.

She was aware of her own story; that was certain.

And the acid of that knowledge was etching the designs of character upon a physical adolescence unprepared for such biting reaction.
He was sorry he knew it, feeling ashamed of his own guiltless invasion of the girl's privacy.
The only reparation possible was to forget it.

Like an honourable card-player who inadvertently sees his opponent's cards, he must play his hand exactly as he would have in the beginning.

And that, he believed, would be perfectly simple.
Reassured he looked across the lawns toward the Cardross villa, a big house of coquina cement, very beautiful in its pseudo-Spanish architecture, red-tiled roofs, cool patias, arcades, and courts; the formality of terrace, wall, and fountain charmingly disguised under a riot of bloom and foliage.
The house stood farther away than he had imagined, for here the public road ended abruptly in a winding hammock-trail, and to the east the private drive of marl ran between high gates of wrought iron swung wide between carved coquina pillars.
And the house itself was very much larger than he had imagined; the starlight had illuminated only a small portion of its white facade, tricking him; for this was almost a palace--one of those fine vigorously designed mansions, so imposing in simplicity, nicknamed by smug humility--a "cottage," or "villa." "By jingo, it's noble!" he exclaimed, the exotic dignity of the house dawning on him by degrees as he moved forward and the southern ocean sprang into view, turquoise and amethyst inlaid streak on streak to the still horizon.
"What a chance!" he repeated under his breath; "what a chance for the noblest park ever softened into formality! And the untouched forests beyond!--and the lagoons!--and the dunes to the east--and the sea! Lord, Lord," he whispered with unconscious reverence, "what an Eden!" One of the white-haired, black-skinned children of men--though the point is locally disputed--looked up from the grass where he squatted gathering ripe fruit under a sapodilla tree; and to an inquiry: "Yaas-suh, yaas-suh; Mistuh Cahdhoss in de pomelo g'ove, suh, feedin' mud-cat to de wile-puss." "Doing _what_ ?" "Feedin' mud-fish to de wile-cat, de wile lynx-cat, suh." The aged negro rose, hat doffed, juicy traces of forbidden sapodillas on his face which he naively removed with the back of the blackest and most grotesquely wrinkled hand Hamil had ever seen.
"Yaas-suh; 'scusin' de 'gator, wile-cat love de mud-fish mostest; yaas, suh.