Christina’s two hands had been hanging clasped in front of her; she separated them and flung them apart by an admirable gesture.

“Would you have done this if you had not seen Miss Garland?”

She looked at him with quickened attention; then suddenly, “This is interesting!” she cried. “Let us have it out.” And she flung herself into a chair and pointed to another.

“You don’t answer my question,” Rowland said.

“You have no right, that I know of, to ask it. But it ‘s a very clever one; so clever that it deserves an answer. Very likely I would not.”

“Last night, when I said that to myself, I was extremely angry,” Rowland rejoined.

“Oh, dear, and you are not angry now?”

“I am less angry.”

“How very stupid! But you can say something at least.”

“If I were to say what is uppermost in my mind, I would say that, face to face with you, it is never possible to condemn you.”