He sat staring at the rug and striving to his utmost to think of something to say in his own defense.
"Well," she said, "since you have been so frank, I suppose that I may as well add my confession. I never knew, until within the last five minutes, who you were. Therefore I had nothing the best of you."
"What? What's that?" he asked as if incredulous, or in fear that he had not heard her words aright.
He lifted his eyes and saw that she was now facing him.
"It's the truth," she bravely admitted. "I never knew that your name was James Gollop, and that you were a commercial man, until within the last five minutes! If there were need I could swear it."
"Then," he demanded, blankly, "who in the deuce did you think I was, anyhow?"
"I thought," she said with a slight shrug, "that you were Judge James Woodworth-Granger, of whom I suppose you have never heard. He is the Judge of the Fourth District Court, seated in a small city called Princetown."
He was so astounded that for the moment he was speechless. It seemed to him that all his chickens had come home to roost.
"Granger? Judge Granger—that inflated, stiff-necked, egotistical bag of conceit! And—and—you thought I was Granger!"
There was reproach in his voice as well as words.