"Oh, to explain, and all that! Hang the explanation! I didn't want him to tell me he hadn't been a blackguard; I knew you,—so that was all square. But I don't understand it now, and I don't want to. I can't see any great shakes, myself, in playing about with a girl when you're engaged to some one else. But I suppose that's because I'm such a rotten ass. It's none of my business, any way; only, I think you'd better be careful. But you know best, so that's all right."
Again she longed to tell him that she was not so bad as he thought her, and yet, much worse than he thought her; but the words would not come, and she sat self-condemned.
"You don't understand," she stammered presently. "I didn't know he was engaged till yesterday. I saw no harm in it all; I only liked him very much, as a friend. I liked you in quite a different way, I—"
"You didn't know he was engaged?" said Ted, rousing himself suddenly. "Do you mean to say he has been playing fast and loose with you, the blackguard? If I had thought that—"
"No, no!" she cried, in alarm at the fierceness of his expression. "He never treated me badly; he made everything quite clear from the beginning. It was my fault if I misunderstood him. But I never did; I always knew we were just friends, and it was pleasant, and I let it go on. Haven't you and I been friends, too, Ted? There was no harm in that, was there?"
"Oh, no," he said, bitterly. "There was no fear of any harm in it!"
She realised his meaning, and blushed painfully as she felt that he had spoken the truth.
"Ted, do you hate me, I wonder?" she murmured.
"What? Oh, that's all right. Don't bother about me. I was a rotten ass ever to expect anything else."
"But, I mean, because—because of the other?" she went on anxiously.