'I remembered I had the dread that you would, though I did not imagine you would reach me so swiftly. My going there was an instinct, too. I suppose we are all instinct when we have the world at our heels. Forgive me if I generalize without any longer the right to be included in the common human sum. “Pariah” and “taboo” are words we borrow from barbarous tribes; they stick to me.'
'My Tony, you look as bright as ever, and you speak despairingly.'
'Call me enigma. I am that to myself, Emmy.'
'You are not quite yourself to your friend.'
'Since the blow I have been bewildered; I see nothing upright. It came on me suddenly; stunned me. A bolt out of a clear sky, as they say. He spared me a scene: There had been threats, and yet the sky was clear, or seemed. When we have a man for arbiter, he is our sky.'
Emma pressed her Tony's unresponsive hand, feeling strangely that her friend ebbed from her.
'Has he... to mislead him?' she said, colouring at the breach in the question.
'Proofs? He has the proofs he supposes.'
'Not to justify suspicion?'
'He broke open my desk and took my letters.'