"Not unkind, sir—exactly."
"But what did Ethel mean? She said we'd been brutes to you. Is that true?"
"No, sir; not in my sense. I haven't felt it."
He tapped his foot with the old imperiousness. "Then—what?"
We were so near the fundamentals that again I felt I ought to give him nothing but the facts.
"I suppose Mrs. Rossiter meant that sometimes I should have been glad of a little more sympathy, and always of more—courtesy." I added: "From you, sir, I shouldn't have asked for more than courtesy."
Though only his profile was toward me and the hall was dim, I could see that his face was twitching. "And—and didn't you get it?"
"Do you think I did?"
"I never thought anything about it."
"Exactly; but any one in my position does. Even if we could do without courtesy between equals—and I don't think we can—from the higher to the lower—from you to me, for instance—it's indispensable. I don't remember that I ever complained of it, however. Mrs. Rossiter must have seen it for herself."