"So you both haunt the Square?"
At the question Stephen turned and faced her frankly. "How, in Heaven's name, does she stand him?"
"That's a riddle. To me he is impossible."
"He is more than that. He is unspeakable." As he looked into her eyes a deep anxiety or disturbance appeared beneath the superficial gaiety of his smile. "The fellow had evidently had a quarrel, perhaps a permanent break, with Vetch. He was in a kind of cold rage; and do you know what he said to me? He told me,—not openly, but in pretended secrecy,—that Vetch had never married Patty's mother—"
For an instant Corinna gazed at him in silence. Then her words came in a gasp of indignation. "Of course there isn't a word of truth in it!"
"So I said to him. He insists that he has the proofs. You know what it means?"
"Oh, I know—poor Patty! You understand why he told you?"
"I couldn't at first see the reason; but afterward it came to me."
"The reason is as clear as daylight. He is infatuated, and he imagines that you stand in his way."
"Not only that. I think he has some idea of using whatever proofs he has to bend Vetch to his will. He was sharp enough not to say so, for he knew that would be pure blackmail. The ground he took was one of nauseating morality, but I inferred that he is trying to force Vetch to agree to this general strike, and that he is prepared to threaten him with some kind of exposure if he doesn't. This, however, was mere surmise on my part. The fellow is as shrewd as he is unprincipled."