"Cousin Billy," she said, sitting down near him, "I want to talk with you about Robert. I want to remind you, if you will let me, of your duty to him."
"What do you conceive my duty to be in the case, Sudie?" asked Billy.
"To defend him," said Miss Sudie.
"But how can I do that, Sudie, in face of the facts?"
"You believe then that Robert Pagebrook, whom you know thoroughly, has done the dishonorable things laid to his charge?"
"Well," said Billy, feeling himself hardly prepared for this kind of attack, "I confess I should never have thought him capable of doing such things."
"Why would you never have thought him capable of doing them, Cousin Billy?"
"O well, because he always seemed to be such an honorable fellow," said Billy.
"You did believe him honorable, then?" asked this young female Socrates.
"Certainly; you know that Sudie."