My lady's cheek grew rosy and her delicate nostrils expanded suddenly, but her voice was smooth and soft as ever.
"Will you swear it, Pan?"
"On oath!" he answered.
"Alack!" she sighed. "On what slender threads doth woman's reputation hang! And if I say I was not there?"
"Then, my lady, I am blind or, having eyes, see visions——"
"Was ever such a coil!" she sighed. "Dear Pan, hast ever been my second brother, so do I forgive thee and, thus forgiving, bid thee go, thinking on me as kindly as thou may'st and believing that thine eyes do verily see visions." So the Viscount bowed and went, somewhat stiff in the back and making great play with his snuff-box. "Dear Pan!" she murmured as she watched him go, "I might have loved him had I any love to spare. And now—you, John—will you rail at me, too?"
"No, my lady," he answered dully, "never again!"
"Yet your voice is cold and hard! Did you think to see me too?"
"Aye, I saw—I saw," he answered wearily.
"And if I say you saw me not?"