"Now you will pitch into me! I haven't seen the letters, and I don't know whether there is one for you: but I met Herbert, and he told me he had heard from your sister; and—and I thought you might like to hear that, as I was coming this way."
"It is still good of you," said Christina kindly; and that made him honest.
"It isn't a bit good, because I came this way to speak to you about something else."
"Really?"
"Yes, because one sees so little of you now, and soon you will be going. The truth is something has been rankling with me ever since the night you arrived—nothing you said to me; it was my own behavior to you——"
"Which wasn't pretty," interrupted Tiny.
"I know it wasn't; I have been very sorry for it. When you offered to tell me about your engagement I wouldn't listen. I would listen now!"
"And now I shouldn't dream of telling you a word," Tiny said, staring coolly in his face; "not even if I were engaged."
"Well, it amounts to that," Swift told her steadfastly, for he knew what he meant to say, and was not to be deterred by the snubs and worse to which he was knowingly laying himself open.
"Pray how do you know what it amounts to?"