'Yes,' he said, indignant. 'How else?'
'Now I,' she said, 'use speech to disguise truth, with foul or with fair, or sometimes to slay and bury it out of sight.'
'Then, when you declared you had not summoned me, was that untrue?'
'If I now answered "Yes" or "No," you could be no nearer satisfaction; for you have not the wit to weigh my word with mood, disposition, circumstance, to strike a balance for truth.'
Christian pondered, perplexed and amazed at that perverse argument.
'I would another were here to unreeve this tangle you are in. There is one, wise, tender, a saint.'
Diadyomene levelled her brows.
'A woman! And you love her!' she said, and astonished the inexperienced boy.
'Above all! She is mother to me.'
He said timidly: 'Of all evils incurred by my presumption here, the worst is that between her and me your secret stands a bar to perfect confidence. I did not guess it would gall her so. I may not tell you how.'