"Remember now--just common sense!" This was a time for keeping clear! But Joe had come back into the room, and passing the gilt mirror into which Fanny had told him to look, he stopped a moment.
"Don't do that, Joe!" In an instant, in spite of herself, her love for him rose up in a wave, with fear and pity and anger, too.

She came to him, and her voice was shaking.

"Oh, Joe--Joe! Can't you see it's all lies?
It's so loathsome--every word! And so cheap--so cheap and mean!" As she spoke, his eyes were rapidly scanning the report he still had in his hands.

Again she noticed how tired he was.

He looked up at her: "I know it is! But why didn't you treat it like that?
Why did you try to make her keep quiet?
Weren't you trying, when I came in ?" "No! No! It was just her odious trick--her pretending!" "Pretending?
How about you?
Why did you pretend, when I brought Dwight here, that you'd never laid eyes on him before?
Had you or hadn't you?
Careful, now! Fanny says it is all here!" "I'll explain in one word!" "What's the word?
Say it, please--and for God's sake clear this up!" She was breathing hard, frightened, her mind in a whirl.