"Sherry—no!"
"And what about Harry? You don't mean to say—"
"If you'll listen, I'll tell you what I do mean to say." Then he described to her as well as he could, what had really taken place between him and Harry Clavering at the office.
"He cannot mean to be false, if he is coming here," said the wife.
"He does not mean to be false; but he is one of those men who can be false without meaning it,—who allow themselves to drift away from their anchors, and to be carried out into seas of misery and trouble, because they are not careful in looking to their tackle. I think that he may still be held to a right course, and therefore I have begged him to come here."
"I am sure that you are right, Theodore. He is so good and so affectionate, and he made himself so much one of us!"
"Yes; too easily by half. That is just the danger. But look here, Cissy. I'll tell you what I mean to do. I will not see him myself;—at any rate, not at first. Probably I had better not see him at all. You shall talk to him."
"By myself!"
"Why not? You and he have always been great friends, and he is a man who can speak more openly to a woman than to another man."
"And what shall I say as to your absence?"