“Yes,” he said, “I know and sympathize with him. In fact, I quite see why he found it difficult to stay. The situation was only tolerable while he was very ill.”
“Why?”
Kenwardine meant to tell her. It was better that she should smart a little now than suffer worse afterwards.
“As soon as he began to get better Brandon remembered that we were the cause of his misfortunes. You can see how this complicated things.”
“But we had nothing to do with them,” Clare said sharply. “What made him think we had?”
“It’s not an illogical conclusion when he imagines that he lost his papers in our house.”
Clare got up with a red flush in her face and her eyes sparkling. “It’s absurd!” she exclaimed. “He must have been delirious when he said so.”
“He didn’t say so in as many words; Brandon has some taste. But he was perfectly sensible and intended me to see what he meant.”
The girl stood still, trembling with anger and confusion, and Kenwardine felt sorry for her. She was worse hurt than he had expected, but she would rally.
“But he couldn’t have been robbed while he was with us,” she said with an effort, trying to understand Dick’s point of view. “He hadn’t an overcoat, so the plans must have been in the pocket of his uniform, and nobody except myself was near him.”