"Are you going to let me go away with that for my answer?"
"Perhaps."
He hooked his thumbs in his girdle and looked down, considering; then, quietly raising his head:
"I don't know what you have found out—what has been told you. I have done plenty of things in my life unworthy of you, but I thought you knew that."
"I know it now."
"You knew it before. I never attempted to conceal anything."
A sudden blue glimmer made her eyes brilliant. "That is a falsehood!" she said deliberately. The colour faded from his cheeks, then he said with ashy composure:
"I lie much less than the average man, Ailsa. It is nothing to boast of, but it happens to be true. I don't lie."
"You keep silent and act a lie!"
He reflected for a moment; then: