“No; on hers. You see, she’s been so terribly talked about that now that it’s beginning again—”
“Oh, it’s beginning again, is it?”
She said, mysteriously, “Stephen Cantyre is rather a goose, you know.”
“In what way?”
“In the way of dropping hints when he’d much better keep still. He’s so crazy about her—”
“It’s a pity for him to be dropping hints if he isn’t sure.”
“Oh, he must be sure enough! After the way she treated him before, he’d never expose himself to the same thing the second time. It isn’t that he’s not sure. It’s just the way he does it—confiding in every one, but only saying that he hopes.”
“If he only hopes, it doesn’t bind any one but himself.”
“It isn’t a question of binding; it’s one of the situation. If she’s let him hope—the second time—she’s bound. If it was only the first time—or if she hadn’t made such an insane reputation for herself—don’t you see?—the whole thing is in that.”
“I should think the whole thing was in whether or not she was in love with him.”