She stopped and faced him, still pale in the moonlight, but quite composed, waiting for him to go on.
"I--I've been placed in a false light--I would like----"
"How, Monsieur?" she said indifferently.
"What you saw, just now--there. Perhaps you think----"
His words stumbled and at last failed completely, for he saw that she was bent on making explanations difficult.
"What does it matter to me," she said, "whom you embrace, and why?"
He felt the sting under her words, and realized that every phrase he uttered only placed him at a greater disadvantage.
"I can make no explanation," he muttered. "If you think me a fool, I'm sorry. And yet I'll prove that your confidence was not misplaced." Another silence during which Tanya walked onward without sign that she heard him.
"Madame Rochal has just confided that she is an agent of the Provisional Government in Russia."
"And you believed her?"