Page:Waylaid by Wireless - Balmer - 1909.djvu/160

Rh "I'm not! And I didn't show it. But," he questioned inconsistently in a moment, "how did you know it?"

"Oh, most people who pretend to take things as lightly and as recklessly as you do are really very sensitive when one knows the truth. The manner they show to others is merely their necessary defence and their natural—"

"Perversion?"

"Oh, no! Compensation. They have to make it up to themselves—"

"And to the others?"

"Yes; and, Mr. Preston, when you give your sensible part an opportunity for a time, you much more than make up for the worry you give yourself and your friends from your sensitive side."

"Thank you. May I—hope from that that perhaps I could have worried you?"

"You did. Yes; if you want to hope it."

"I do—brazenly and all unashamed, if I could believe with it that I might ever make it up to you somehow."

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