"Did he use the word—charity?"
"Almost. He said you offered him a loan, but that it really was a gift."
His first impulse was to repudiate this point of view, but a minute's reflection decided him in favor of plain speaking. "Well," he said, slowly, "suppose it was a gift. Would there be any harm in it?"
"There wouldn't be any harm, perhaps; there would only be an—impossibility." She worked very busily, and spoke in a low voice, without looking up. "A gift implies two conditions—on the one side the right to offer, and on the other the freedom to take."
"But I should say that those conditions existed—between Mr. Guion and me."
"But not between you and me. Don't you see? That's the point. To any such transaction as this I have to be, in many ways, the most important party."
Again he was tempted to reject this interpretation; but, once more, on second thought, he allowed it to go uncontested. When he spoke it was to pass to another order of question.
"I wonder how much you know?"
"About my father's affairs? I know everything."
"Everything?"