"Well?" said Jeff, patiently, but not insecurely.
"Have you?"
"Have I what?"
"Always cared for me."
He could not find his voice quite as promptly as before. He cleared his throat before he asked: "Has Mr. Westover been saying anything about me?"
"I don't know what you mean, exactly; but I presume you do."
"Well, then—I always expected to tell you—I did have a fancy for that girl, for Miss Vostrand, and I told her so. It's like something that never happened. She wouldn't have me. That's all."
"And you expect me to take what she wouldn't have?"
"If you like to call it that. But I should call it taking a man that had been out of his head for a while, and had come to his senses again."
"I don't know as I should ever feel safe with a man that had been out of his head once."