"Well?" he said irritably.
"You know what you told me. I have been so longing to ask more. Did you really mean what you said about Mr. Selwyn, and twenty thousand pounds?"
She remembered the whole, then! He was much annoyed, for he had hoped that her recollections might at least be indistinct.
"My dear, I really cannot be responsible for any nonsense I may have talked at such a moment."
"Nonsense!" she repeated.
"Yes, certainly; one is apt to get off one's balance, and to say foolish things—things which one would not say in a calmer mood. It was exciting, of course. You felt that yourself?"
"But I am not jesting," she said gently, tears filling her eyes. "It was real, you know, not mere nonsense or foolishness. You said to me so plainly—don't you remember?—that if anything happened to you I was to be sure and let Hermione have her rights. What are Hermione's rights?"
"She has none. If I had not been upset and off my balance, I should not have made use of so aboard an expression."
"You did not think it absurd then!" she said in a low voice.
"No. It was a moment of agitation. The expression is none the less absurd. Hermione has no legal claim upon me whatever. Of course there is the question whether, as a mere matter of kindness—as a matter perhaps of what may have been my uncle's intention—whether it would be well to settle upon her a small sum. I am quite prepared to do what seems right. We will consider it together by-and-by. Not to-day, however."