He smiled, sceptically, but not contemptuously. “Then what do you imagine to be my ambitions?” he asked quietly.
And she was floored. In her deepest soul she told herself: I haven’t an idea. The man is an enigma to me. How do I know his ambitions?
“I suppose,” she faltered, “you want to benefit humanity and—and——”
“And all that sort of thing, eh?” he interrupted sardonically. “You certainly ought to finish up that way.”
“Don’t be sarcastic.... Am I right?”
“Of course you are right,” he replied whimsically, and left much to be implied.
“Then I knew what you didn’t think I knew?”
“Oh no, not at all.... My doubts were not of your knowledge.... It is a question of understanding....”
“And I am not capable of that, eh? That’s what you mean, isn’t it?”
“I’m afraid it is....”