"Why do you say all this?" she demanded haughtily. "If it is as you say and through your fault, you must put the matter right. I do not wish to know these women, but I do not choose that they shall shake their skirts at me, because you have a vile reputation. You will have to find some way out——"
Abinger looked away from the window at last and at her. There was a tall lamp to his hand, and he turned it up high, and she saw that he was smiling—a smile none the less unlovely because it had in it the same unusual quality of gentleness that had distinguished it all the evening.
"But, of course, my dear girl!" he said with a note of surprise in his voice, "that is what I am coming to. I have told you these things simply to show you the impossibility of your living any kind of social life here, unless you are prepared to let everybody know the real state of affairs. When everything is known it will be a simple affair for you to take your place, and you will have an assured position that no one will be able to cavil at. It is for you to say now, whether or not you are ready for the truth to be published."
Poppy's look was of amazement.
"The truth? But what do you mean, Luce? You have been at great pains to tell me why they won't accept the truth."
He stood looking down at her vivid face for a moment. There was an expression on his own that she found arresting too, and she said no more; only waited till he should speak. He turned the lamp down again.
"Poppy," he said in a very low, but clear voice, "do you remember the old French Jesuit coming to the White Farm?"
She stared at him. Her expression reverted to irritation and surprise.
"Father Eugène? Of course I do. And I remember how furious you were, too. And how you stormed at each other in French for about twenty minutes, while Kykie and I stood wondering what it was all about."
"Do you remember any other details? I'm not asking out of idle curiosity," he added, as she threw herself back impatiently in her chair. She wrinkled her brows for a moment. Her head really ached very badly, but she wished to be reasonable.