Mrs Lawless looked slightly impatient. This man too! ... Was everyone she met to say the same thing to her, only in different words?
“Please disabuse your mind of any such impression,” she said. “Of course I feel sympathy with the trouble of my friends, but your presence cannot possibly increase my distress. Why should it?”
“I feared you might hold me responsible for what has occurred,” he said simply. “And the sight of me cannot fail to call up painful thoughts. I do not profess to be other than an enemy of the man you regard as a friend. You know too much of the matter for me to impose on you—even if I wished to do so. I can only say that I regret that our interests are opposed.”
She smiled faintly.
“You take rather much for granted, I think,” she said. “Why should you suppose I am interested in the matter at all? Women do not usually meddle in such dangerous and discreditable enterprises—you will forgive me for speaking of this as I feel... I cannot see that it is creditable to be concerned in this business of yours.”
“Perhaps not,” he said. “But then, again, perhaps you don’t fully understand. And aren’t you judging a little by results?”
“I think it is reasonable to draw conclusions from results in most instances,” she answered.
“From final results,” he returned... “But not at this stage.”
“I had hoped this was the last stage,” she said.
“I had hoped it might be,” he returned with some grimness of manner... “But we haven’t won yet.”