“Did you intend that the convention should laugh?”
“No. That surprised and grieved me very much!”
Miss De Voe gathered from this and from what the papers had said that it must be a mortifying subject to Peter, and knew that she ought to discontinue it. But she could not help saying, “Why?”
“It’s difficult to explain, I’m afraid. I had a feeling that a man was trying to do wrong, but I hoped that I was mistaken. It seemed to me that circumstances compelled me to tell the convention all about it, but I was very careful not to hint at my suspicion. Yet the moment I told them they laughed.”
“Why?”
“Because they felt sure that the man had done wrong.”
“Oh!” It was a small exclamation, but the expression Miss De Voe put into it gave it a big meaning. “Then they were laughing at Maguire?”
“At the time they were. Really, though, they were laughing at human weakness. Most people seem to find that amusing.”
“And that is why you were grieved?”
“Yes.”