“Let ‘em think,” said I.

“If everyone thinks it—”

“Oh, come, nonsense!” said I.

“You know what you thought. What honest woman would have anything to do with me—or what honest man either?”

I had nothing to say about that; so I said again.

“Well, don’t go, anyhow.”

She spoke in lower tones, as she answered this appeal of mine:

“I daren’t refuse. He’ll be here again; and my mother—”

“Put it off a day or two,” said I. “And don’t take that thing.”

She looked at me, it seemed to me, in astonishment.