Helen’s manner did not encourage any indulgence in sentiment and he half resented this, although it made things easier. He could not say he had come to give her up, because there had been no formal engagement. Still he had expected some sign of pity or regret.
“You don’t defend yourself,” she remarked thoughtfully. “Couldn’t you have fought it out?”
“There was nothing to fight for. I lost the papers I was trusted with; one can’t get over that.”
“But people may imagine you did something worse.” She paused for a moment and added: “Don’t you care what I might think?”
Dick looked at her steadily. “You ought to know. Do you believe it’s possible I stole and meant to sell the plans?”
“No,” she said with a touch of color. “But I would have liked you, for your friends’ sake, to try to clear yourself. If you had lost the papers, they would have been found and sent back; as they were not, it looks as if you had been robbed.”
That she could reason this out calmly struck Dick as curious, although he had long known that Helen was ruled by her brain and not her heart.
“I’ve been careless and there’s nothing to be done but take my punishment.”
She gave him a keen glance. “Are you hiding something, Dick? It’s your duty to tell all that you suspect.”
Dick winced. Helen was right; it was his duty, but he was not going to carry it out. He began to see what this meant, but his resolution did not falter.