"Did you say humiliation? Do I deserve so much?"
"At dinner one tries, of course, to group congenial people," suggested Alice coldly.
"But we are not congenial."
"I supposed you were Mrs. Nelson's most frequent guest."
"I have not been at Mrs. Nelson's since the evening Guyot and Lambert were there," said Kimberly. "You, yourself, were there that night."
Alice betrayed no confusion but she was shocked a little to realize that she believed him instantly. Kimberly, at least as to truthfulness, had won her confidence. Her own husband had forfeited it. The difficulty now, she felt, would be ever to believe him at all.
"I remember," she assented with returning cordiality. "I was very proud to listen that night."
Kimberly stood with his hand on the back of a chair. "Lambert is a brilliant fellow."
"Possibly; my sympathies were not with his views.
"So I sit here?" continued Kimberly patiently. "Who sits next to you?"