Page:The Fruit of the Tree (Wharton 1907).djvu/102

Rh “There’s the point. Why should Bessy believe Dr. Disbrow rather than Mr. Amherst?”

“For the best of reasons—because Disbrow has nothing to gain by distorting the facts, whereas this young Amherst, as Tredegar pointed out, has the very obvious desire to give Truscomb a bad name and shove himself into his place.”

Mrs. Ansell contemplatively turned the rings upon her ﬁngers. “From what I saw of Amherst I’m inclined to think that, if that is his object, he is too clever to have shown his hand so soon. But if you are right, was there not all the more reason for letting Bessy see him and ﬁnd out as soon as possible what he was aiming at?”

“If one could have trusted her to ﬁnd out—but you credit my poor child with more penetration than I’ve ever seen in her.”

“Perhaps you’ve looked for it at the wrong time—and about the wrong things. Bessy has the penetration of the heart.”

“The heart! You make mine jump when you use such expressions.”

“Oh, I use this one in a general sense. But I want to help you to keep it from acquiring a more restricted signiﬁcance.”

“Restricted—to the young man himself?”

Mrs. Ansell’s expressive hands seemed to commit the [ 88 ]