"Did you hear what he said to me?"
Tristrem for all response shook his head wonderingly.
The girl's cheeks from white had turned flame.
"He has not been to you the friend you think," she said, and raising her arm to her face, she made a gesture as though to brush from her some distasteful thing.
"But what has he done? What did he say?"
"Don't ask me. Don't mention him to me." She buried her face again in her hands and was silent.
Tristrem turned uneasily and walked into the other room, and then back again to where she sat; but still she hid her face and was silent. And Tristrem left her and continued his walk, this time to the dining-room and then back to the parlor which he had first entered. And after a while Miss Raritan stood up from her seat and as though impelled by the nervousness of her companion, she, too, began to pace the rooms, but in the contrary direction to that which Tristrem had chosen. At last she stopped, and when Tristrem approached her she beckoned him to her side.
"What did you say to me last night?" she asked.
"What did I say? I said—you asked me—I said it would be difficult."
"Do you think so still?"