"I have accomplished nothing."
"You have tried to make my way easy here; and you have had no end of trouble. I am not as dull as I look, Larry."
"If I have deceived you it has been with an honest purpose."
"I don't question that. But Helen has been giving you a great deal of trouble, hasn't she? You don't quite make her out; isn't that true?"
"I understand her perfectly," I averred recklessly.
"You are a daring young man, Larry, to make that statement of any woman. Helen has not always dealt honestly with you—or me!"
"She is the noblest girl in the world; she is splendid beyond any words of mine. I don't understand what you mean, Miss Holbrook."
"Larry, you dear boy, I am no more blind or deaf than I am dumb! Helen has been seeing her father and Reginald Gillespie. She has run off at night, thinking I wouldn't know it. She is an extremely clever young woman, but when she has made a feint of retiring early, only to creep out and drop down from the dining-room balcony and dodge your guards, I have known it. She was away last night and came creeping in like a thief. It has amused me, Larry; it has furnished me real diversion. The only thing that puzzles me is that I don't quite see where you stand."
"I haven't always been sure myself, to be frank about it!"
"Why not tell me just how it is: whether Helen has been amusing herself with you, or you with Helen."