"You struck deep with it. Does the knowledge give you any satisfaction?"
"It fills my cup of shame to overflowing. Yet,—come to think of things, you did much the same without realising it."
"Which makes a vast difference, surely?"
"Not to me, mon ami. It is only God who judges by the intention; possibly because He never suffers from the action."
"Quita! That's irreverent!"
"Is it? I'm sorry if it sets your Scottish prickles on end! Are you . . . a very religious man, Eldred?"
"I believe in God," he answered simply.
A short silence followed the statement. Then Quita spoke.
"But you see, don't you, dear man, that I spoke truth. My pain was none the less sharp because you inflicted it unwittingly. It's one of the things people are apt to forget."
"Your pain? Before God I never dreamed that any act of mine could give you a minute's uneasiness; though Mrs Desmond . . ."