"I know some of it."
"I'll tell you the rest. When I came into the library, I won't say I lost my heart. I'm not a man to be bowled over by the first piece of plaintive prettiness with a white neck and a turned-down collar that comes his way. I've seen pretty nearly every pose, and that's the one I mistrust most. Besides, I already had La Palèze against you."
"It wasn't such a secret as you think. Other people had it against me too."
"Yes. But with the unimportant difference that I got the credit of the walks to Sables in the sunset and all the rest of the idyll."
"Which you never took the trouble to deny."
"Frankly, I never did, coz."
"Why not, please?"
"Ah! there you touch a kink in my nature that I can't explain."
"You saw that we were left alone. You must have noticed the women cut me. Do you know that my own cousin spied on me at night and accused me of wearing clothes and jewelry you'd bought for me?"
"Flash—don't scold! I didn't know all this; and if I had, it wouldn't have upset me. It seemed more my business than any one else's what had happened to you before."