"I am not supposed to know, madam."
"Not even to please me?"
"Oh, if it please you, I am supposed to know everything."
"Good. Then tell me what you know about Mr. Milford. You understand that it is my mission to find interest in nearly all—well, I might say, odd persons. You have met him when I was not with you. And he must have told you something."
"He has told me nothing that I can repeat."
"Oh, is it that bad?"
"Is what that bad, Mrs. Goodwin? I do not understand what you mean by that bad. Perhaps what he told me did not make enough impression to be remembered."
"But didn't he say things you did not remember, but continued to feel?"
"Yes, I believe so. You know that I do not understand men very well. I do not understand any one very well. They make remarks about him and say that he is mysterious, but he is plainer to me than any one. Somehow I feel with him. He has had a hard life, I think, and that brings him closer to me."
"Ah, my dear, the suffering I spoke of just now."