"Go on. I must try to bear it,"—meekly. "I know I am considered incapable of a pure motive."
"Was it you drew back the curtain?"
"Well, really, yes, I believe it was. I wanted my friend, you see, and I knew I should find him with the bangles. Yes; it was I drew the curtain."
"Just what I should have expected from you," says Mrs. Herrick.
"Ah! Thank you! Now at last you are beginning to see things in their true light, and to take my part," says Mr. Kelly, with exaggerated gratitude. "Now, indeed, I feel I have not lived in vain! You have, though at a late hour, recognized the extraordinary promptitude that characterizes my every action. While another might have been hesitating, I drew the curtain. I am seldom to be found wanting, I may, indeed, always be discovered just where——"
"You aren't wanting," interrupts Mrs. Herrick, with a sudden smile.
"How can that be," says Kelly, with reproachful sadness, "when I am generally to be found near you?"
At this Hermia gives in, and breaks into a low soft laugh.
"But I wish you had not told that story of Olga and Mr. Ronayne," she says, in a whisper, and with some regret. "You saw how badly Rossmoyne took it."
"That is partly why I told it. I think you are wrong in trying to make that marriage: she would be happier with Ronayne."