"I understand now," he said. "I know now why he faced death the way he did. What man would not?"
This last he spoke quietly, as if to himself.
"Can you think of him as insincere, as faithless, as selfish, as greedy for power?" she asked.
He shook his head.
"I've told you things that are sacred," she said. "I have told you because I regard you as a friend. I liked you from the moment we met——"
"And I said you were beautiful?" he interrupted.
She smiled back to him.
"And you said I was beautiful," she repeated. "But not simply because you said it, but because I thought you meant it."
"I often wonder how I had courage to say that to you and to tell you I dreamed of meeting you again," he said. "I have often wondered why you have been so kind, why you are interested in me at all. At first I thought it was only—only what you might call pity and I resented it."
"Why is it we have such thoughts?" she said. "Why must we always impute a misconceived motive?"