"I was very wrong to pronounce this condemnation, which I did without attaching any importance to it."
"Do you think that hastened its execution?"
"I am not so foolish as that, but I should be better pleased if I had not condemned him."
"Do you regret it?"
"I regret that he is dead."
"Decidedly, the enigma continues; but you know I do not understand it, and, if you wish, we will stop there. We have something better to do than to talk of Caffie."
"On the contrary, let me talk to you of him, because we want your advice."
Again he looked at her, trying to read her face and to divine why she insisted on speaking of Caffie, when he had just expressed a wish not to speak of him. What was there beneath this insistence?
"I will listen," he said; "and, since you wish to ask my advice on the subject, you must tell me immediately what you mean."
"You are right; and I should have told you before, but embarrassment and shame restrained me. And I reproach myself, for with you I should feel neither embarrassment nor reproach."