"Confound you. You read me like a book."
"An open page is easy reading. Now who made the charges?"
"Kingsland."
"I thought so. Whom did they concern?"
"Darcy."
"Exactly. And at the very moment that you were asking her to give you the right to protect her from men of Darcy's stamp—he turns up and proves you the worst of the lot."
"And she— I wonder she didn't refuse me out of hand."
"I wonder she didn't accept you—but let that pass. All I wish to point out to you is this:—Kingsland drove you by the charges he made against Darcy to propose to Miss Fitzgerald. What was his motive for doing so?"
"Friendship for Miss Fitzgerald."
"Would that be likely to induce him to make serious charges against her?"