He proceeded to recount what had passed at the Dene and Jessy listened, sitting perfectly still, with an expressionless face.
"So he gave her up—because he admired her?" she said at length.
"That's my view of it. Of course, it sounds unlikely, but I don't think it is so in my partner's case."
Jessy made no comment, but he felt that she was hit hard, and that was not what he had anticipated. He began to wonder whether he had acted judiciously. He glanced about the room, as it did not seem considerate to study her expression just then. A few moments later she turned to him with a smile in which there was the faintest hint of strain.
"I dare say you are right; but there are one or two people to whom I haven't spoken."
She moved away from him, and a little while afterward Mrs. Nairn came upon Carroll standing for the moment alone.
"It's no often one sees ye looking moody," she said. "Was Jessy no gracious?"
"That," replied Carroll, smiling, "is not the difficulty. I'm an unsusceptible and a somewhat inconspicuous person—not worth powder and shot, so to speak; for which I'm sometimes thankful. I believe it saves me a good deal of trouble."
"Then is it something Vane has done that is on your mind? Doubtless, ye feel him a responsibility."
"He's what you'd call all that," Carroll declared. "Still, you see, I've constituted myself his guardian. I don't know why; he'd probably be very vexed if he suspected it."