"
"But I had the impression that you thought I acted unfairly and
unwisely--at such times."
We had come exactly where I wanted. In our minds we were both looking at
those miserable scenes on the 'Fulvia', when Madras sought to adjust the
accounts of life and sorely muddled them.
"But," said I, "you are not the same woman that you were."
"Indeed, Sir Oracle," she answered: "and by what necromancy do you know?"
"By none. I think you are sorry now--I hope you are--for what--"
She interrupted me indignantly. "You go too far. You are
almost--unbearable. You said once that the matter should be buried, and
yet here you work for an opportunity, Heaven knows why, to place me at a
disadvantage!"
"Pardon me," I answered; "I said that I would never bring up those
wretched scenes unless there was cause. There is cause."
She got to her feet. "What cause--what possible cause can there be?"
I met her eye firmly. "I am bound to stand by my friend," I said. "I can
and I will stand by him."
"If it is a game of drawn swords, beware!" she retorted. "You speak to me
as if I were a common adventuress.
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