"Why--not exactly; but I'm awfully interested, Mrs. Ruthven, and we
understand each other so well--"
"I don't understand _you_", she was imprudent enough to say.
This was delightful! Certainly he must be a particularly sad and subtle
dog if this clever but misunderstood young matron found him what in
romance is known as an "enigma."
So he protested with smiling humility that he was quite transparent; she
insisted on doubting him and contrived to look disturbed in her mind
concerning the probable darkness of that past so dear to any young man
who has had none.
As for Alixe, she also was mildly flattered--a trifle disdainfully
perhaps, but still genuinely pleased at the honesty of this crude
devotion. She was touched, too; and, besides, she trusted him; for he
was clearly as transparent as the spring air. Also most women lugged a
boy about with them; she had had several, but none as nice as Gerald. To
tie him up and tack his license on was therefore natural to her; and if
she hesitated to conclude his subjection in short order it was that, far
in a corner of her restless soul, there hid an ever-latent fear of
Selwyn; of his opinions concerning her fitness to act mentor to the boy
of whom he was fond, and whose devotion to him was unquestioned.
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