“Because if you were engaged—if you really were in love with Jane, I wouldn’t care—I wouldn’t have the right to speak to you in confidence.” She hesitated, looking straight at the bare wall before her, but she smiled her devil-may-care smile and went on with a touch of her old manner. “I doubt if you really know me very well after all. I don’t think anybody does. I’ve got a name for playing the game wide open and riding roughshod over all the dearest conventions of the dodos. But I’m straight as a string, Phil, and there isn’t a man or woman in the Cedarcroft or out that can deny it.”
Gallatin smiled.
“It wouldn’t be healthy for anybody to deny it.”
“I don’t care much whether they deny it or not. People who don’t like my creed are welcome to their own. I won’t bother them and they needn’t bother me. But I do care for my friends—and I’m true. You know that, don’t you?”
“Of course.”
“And I’m not all hoyden, Phil.”
“Who said you were?”
“Nobody—but people think it.”
“I don’t.”
“I was hoping you’d say that. Inside of me I think I’m quite womanly at times——”