Page:The Reverberator (2nd edition, American issue, London and New York, Macmillan & Co., 1888).djvu/214

204 "Well, I did," said Francie.

"You put it in the past, I see. You don't then any more."

If this remark was on her visitor's part the sign of a rare assurance the girl's gentleness was still unruffled by it. She hesitated, she even smiled; then she replied, "Oh yes, I do—only not so much."

"They have worked on you; but I should have thought they would have disgusted you. I don't care—even a little sympathy will do—whatever you've got left." He paused, looking at her, but she remained silent; so he went on: "There was no obligation for you to answer my questions—you might have shut me up, that day, with a word."

"Really?" Francie asked, with all her sweet good faith in her face. "I thought I had to—for fear I should appear ungrateful."

"Ungrateful?"

"Why to you—after what you had done. Don't you remember that it was you that introduced us?" And she paused, with a kind of weary delicacy.

"Not to those snobs that are screaming like frightened peacocks. I beg your pardon—I haven't that on my conscience!"

"Well, you introduced us to Mr. Waterlow and he introduced us to—to his friends," Francie explained, blushing, as if it were a fault, for the