He waited for a few seconds after she had finished before he said quietly, "I ought to have guessed really; but I didn't. He said something to me about it yesterday morning—that he had hoped you and I would be friends, or something of the sort."
"And you, what did you say?" she put in.
"I told him that I was afraid you didn't like me, and then he said that in that case there was nothing more to be done. We didn't mention it again. It was before I told him about Hubert."
"Though, whether I like you or not has nothing whatever to do with it, of course," she commented thoughtfully.
"Hasn't it?" he asked, as if he doubted that inference.
"Nothing whatever," she insisted.
"Still if—I mean—it seems to me that ..." he began; but she cut him short by saying with an impatient lift of her chin,—
"I know what you mean, perfectly well. You needn't try to put it into words. That isn't really the point at all."
"What is the point then?" he asked in bewilderment. "I may be frightfully stupid, but I can't quite see...."
She turned her face still farther away from him as she said in a scarcely audible voice, "Nothing should ever induce me to be a bait for you."