"Why?—has Honor snubbed you?" she asked surprised.
He smiled unpleasantly. "It was equal to a knock-down blow."
"But that is so unlike Honor. How do you mean?"
"I am not complaining, for I dare say I deserve it, but I would like her to know that I shall not willingly put myself in the way of the same again."
"Oh—" light had dawned on Joyce. "It must be because she thinks you failed Elsie Meek. She heard that you never went to Sombari on Friday night though you left the party for the purpose of seeing how she was doing. Honor came here straight from the Mission."
"It was on the steps of the Mission bungalow that we met, and I was sentenced without a charge."
"Are you very angry?"
"I don't think I am," he returned proudly. "It is nothing of consequence."
"But would it have made any difference had you gone?" she pressed. "I ask because I feel responsible for having kept you with me." Her voice quavered with emotion and her lovely eyes drooped.
"It would have made no difference." Captain Dalton condescended to explain Elsie Meek's condition and the fatal consequence of the sudden exertion she had taken in her delirium and high fever. "She needed very close watching. Unfortunately that was not given."