"That is precisely what he has done, and with less reason than the most devoted partisan might demand. You know you told him that the claim was Garvin's. He wouldn't believe the newspaper story; he insisted that you would be able to 'square' yourself, as he phrased it, when you came out."
Jeffard was looking past his interlocutor, out and beyond to where the farther tables were emptying themselves of the late diners.
"Yet it is his supposition; and your own, you were going to say. Is it Miss Elliott's also?"
Lansdale resisted the impulse to rummage again, and said: "I don't know that—how should I know? But rumor has made the charge, and you have not denied it."
"I don't mean to deny it—not even to her. But neither have I admitted it."
"My dear Jeffard! aren't the facts an admission?—at least, so long as they stand uncontradicted."
"Everybody seems to think so,—and I can afford to be indifferent."
"Having the money, you mean?—possibly. Am I to take that as an admission of the facts?"
"Facts are fixtures, aren't they? things not to be set up or set aside by admissions or denials. But you may take it as you please."