"I've been doing a great deal of thinking while I was away."
"Really? That's good."
"I see you've changed your mind—as I felt you would, when I thought it over. Your first impulse was to be lenient. But when you fully realized what a dishonorable thing it was for me to do—to——"
"Don't you think you'd better go up before supper?"
"Not till I've said one thing," replied he doggedly.
"Well?"
"I want you to know that you can trust me never to repeat my offense. I'd go to Vaughan and tell him and apologize——"
"And, pray, what has Richard to do with it?" inquired she coldly.
"I understand," he hastened to protest. "I'm not going to speak of it to him. It might put unjust suspicion of you in his head——"
There she laughed outright at him. "You are making yourself perfectly absurd," she said, and turned away to go into the dining room.