"Are you speaking the truth?"
"What do you mean, Miriam? She preferred to go alone; I know she did."
"But didn't you make the excuse to her that you couldn't leave your work?"
"That's true also. Could I say plainly that I saw what she wished?"
"I think it very unlikely that you were right," Miriam rejoined in a tone of indecision.
"What reason have you for saying that?"
"You ought to have a very good reason before you believe the contrary."
She waited for him to reply, but he had taken another piece of paper, and seemed absorbed in covering it with a sort of pattern of his own design.
"Right or wrong, what does it matter?" he exclaimed at length, flinging the pencil away. "The event is the same, in any case. Does it depend on myself how I act, or what I think? Do you believe still that we are free agents, and responsible for our acts and thoughts?"
Miriam avoided his look, and said carelessly: