"But I've withdrawn them," he interrupted, quickly. "He should have told you that. Mademoiselle," he added, rising, and turning toward Marion Grimston, "wouldn't it spare you if we continued this conversation alone?"
"No; I'd rather stay," Miss Grimston said, with an inflection of request. "Please sit down again."
"He should have told you that," Bienville repeated, taking his seat once more, and speaking with some animation. "I did my best to straighten things out for him."
"Then he didn't understand you. He told me you had taken back what you had said, but only in a way that reaffirmed it."
"That's nothing but a tortuous construction put on straightforward words."
"Quite so; but for that very reason I thought that perhaps you'd go to him again and explain what you meant more clearly."
He took a minute to consider this before speaking.
"I don't see how I can," he said, slowly. "I've already used the plainest words of which I have command."
"Words aren't everything. It's the way they're spoken that often counts most. I'm sure you could convince him if you went the right way to work about it."
"I doubt that. I'm afraid I don't know how to force conviction on any one against his will."