"You mean that in the light of subsequent events it would have been reasonable in him to ask me to keep away from you?"
"Yes," said he.
Jack looked Dodo full in the face, in the noble shame of a confessed sin: In that moment he was greater, perhaps, and had risen higher above his vague self-satisfied indifference than ever before. Dodo felt it, and it irritated her, it seemed positively unpardonable.
"Perhaps you do not see that you involve me in your confession," she said with cold scorn. "I decline to be judged by your standards, thanks."
Jack felt a sudden immense pity and anger for her. She would not, or could not, accept the existence of other points of view than her own.
"Apparently you decline to consider the fact of other standards at all."
"I don't accept views which seem to me unreasonable," she said.
"I only ask you to consider this particular view. The story you have just told me shows that he is anxious to see you, which was my point. That he is dangerous and strong I ask you to accept."
"What if I don't?" she asked.
"This," said he. "When a man of that sort desires anything, as he evidently desires you, there is danger. If you are alive to it, and as strong as he is, you are safe. That you are not alive to it you show by your present position; that you are as strong as he, I doubt."