They looked at each other and laughed over the reminiscence. Then he said:
"I did disappoint you when you found out what sort of a man I was."
"No, you didn't."
"I proved it, too," he said under his breath.
Her lips were set firmly, almost primly, but she blushed.
"You meant to be nice to me," she said. "You meant to do me honour."
"The honour of offering you such a man as I was," he said with smiling bitterness.
"Rix! I was the fool—the silly little prig! I have blushed and blushed to remember how I behaved; how I snubbed you and—good heavens!—even lectured and admonished you!—How I ran away from you with all the self-possession and savoir-faire of a country schoolgirl! What on earth you thought of me in those days I dread to surmise——"
"But Strelsa, what was there to do except what you did?"
"If I'd known anything I could have thanked you for caring that way for me and dismissed you as a friend instead of fleeing as though you had affronted me——"