"But if I insist?"
"You'll insist at the risk of having your feelings hurt."
"Oh, that!" A shrug of his shoulders and a wry smile expressed his indifference to such a result. "Did he ask you anything?"
She nodded, without turning from the window.
"Won't you tell me what it was? It would help me in my future dealing with the boy."
She continued to gaze out at the park-like fields, from which the mists had risen. "He asked me if you had done anything bad."
"And you told him—?"
"I told him that I didn't understand—that perhaps I'd never understood."
"Thank you for putting it like that. But you did understand, you know—perfectly. You mustn't have it on your conscience that—"
"Oh, we can't help the things we've got on our consciences. There's no way of shuffling away from them."