"I think you did upset him very much."
"You think I was wrong?"
"I do."
"Perhaps you are right," she admitted.
I had been bold. A desire took me to be still bolder. She was in the carriage with me. She was not older than I. And were she Rosetta Rosa, or a mere miss taken at hazard out of a drawing-room, she was feminine and I was masculine. In short—Well, I have fits of rashness sometimes.
"You say he is depressed," I addressed her firmly. "And I will venture to inform you that I am not in the least surprised."
"Oh!" she exclaimed. "And why?"
"After what you said to him that night in the dressing-room. If I had been in Alresca's place I know that I should be depressed, and very much depressed, too."
"You mean—" she faltered.
"Yes," I said, "I mean that."