“Is that all?”
“I think,” he said, “I have told you a good deal. I wish I could have told you less, or more.”
“It is a good deal,” she replied. “And you went, alone and unarmed, to face that fearful man?”
“Yes, and you see the result. I have spoiled everything.”
“You have not spoiled my regard for you,” she replied. “You are very brave, and you know, or perhaps you do not know, how a woman can admire bravery in a man. But you are better than brave, you are single-hearted. And you let yourself be depressed by what that man, Freyberger, said to you to-night?”
“It has depressed me, for he spoke the truth. He had no motive for speaking otherwise.”
Cécile smiled.
“Not a motive, perhaps, but a half motive.”
“How?”
“What makes a woman depreciate the good looks of another woman? Jealousy, my friend.”