“Ah, now I’m not sure about the superior delicacy!”
“Oh, how good!” said Miss Rasmith. “What a pity you should be wasted in a calling that limits you so much.”
“You call it limiting? I didn’t know but I had gone too far.”
“Not at all! You know there’s nothing I like so much as those little digs.”
“I had forgotten. Then you won’t mind my saying that this surveillance seems to me rather more than I have any right to from you.”
“How exquisitely you put it! Who else could have told me to mind my own business so delightfully? Well, it isn’t my business. I acknowledge that, and I spoke only because I knew you would be sorry if you had gone too far. I remembered our promise to be friends.”
She threw a touch of real feeling into her tone, and he responded, “Yes, and I thank you for it, though it isn’t easy.”
She put out her hand to him, and, as he questioningly took it, she pressed his with animation. “Of course it isn’t! Or it wouldn’t be for any other man. But don’t you suppose I appreciate that supreme courage of yours? There is nobody else-nobody!—who could stand up to an impertinence and turn it to praise by such humility.”
“Don’t go too far, or I shall be turning your praise to impertinence by my humility. You’re quite right, though, about the main matter. I needn’t suppose anything so preposterous as you suggest, to feel that people are best left alone to outlive their troubles, unless they are of the most obvious kind.”
“Now, if I thought I had done anything to stop you from offering that sort of helpfulness which makes you a blessing to everybody, I should never forgive myself.”