“No! by heaven, I don’t!” he answered with conviction; “besides, I couldn’t if I wanted to.”
She waited.
“Phyllis has got into a scrape; I can’t tell you what, because I have promised to keep her secret. She has treated me like a big brother, and come to me with her troubles. I have tried to help her, and this is my reward.”
Eweretta looked her astonishment.
“Colonel Lane thinks I have got up a secret intrigue with the girl. He won’t believe my word. There was no end of a row.”
Eweretta filled a tea-cup which Pierre had brought, and passed it to Philip.
“I ought not to be telling you this,” went on the young man, “but I have my weak moments like the rest.”
“We all have weak moments, certainly,” said Eweretta, “but I don’t think they are always our worst.”
“Don’t you?” said Philip. “I should have thought you would have held different ideas. Your sister—your half-sister—despised weakness.”
“Perhaps that was because she had always been happy,” said Eweretta.