'Then he has put her on a lower intellectual plane; he has withheld from her, as he might from a child.'
'No, he has loved her too well to hurt her.'
'Loved her so ill that he has deceived her from the beginning.'
'To my mind there is something active in deception; this would be rather an omission.'
'An omission that is an insult to her.'
'Not at all!' Noakes spoke somewhat vehemently.
'Don't think I mean,' she said, 'that there should be a detailed interchange of trivial confidence. That would be tiresome. If, however, there were one big thing in his life that might influence her feeling toward him, he should tell it, and let her judge.'
'Not smooth over a disagreeable occurrence?'
'Never! It would be cruel.'
Noakes sat very still.