in a set that discussed its women
freely, he had never used his knowledge of a woman to harm her. He had
carried the same scruple into that other world where Kitty lived, where
he himself was most at home, where an amused, contemptuous tolerance
played the part of chivalry. The women there trusted him; they found him
courteous in his very contempt. He had connived at their small deceits,
the preposterous hypocrisies wherewith they protected themselves. He
accepted urbanely their pitiful imitations of the lost innocence. Kitty,
moving reckless and high in her sad circle, had been scornful of her
sisters' methods. Her soul was as much above them as her body, in its
unique, incongruous beauty, was above their rouge and coloured raiment.
It was this superiority of hers that had brought her to her present
pass; caused her to be mistaken for an honest woman. In her contempt
for the underworld's deceptions she had achieved the supreme deceit.

Her deceit--that was his point.

"Then," she said presently, "what _did_ you say to him?"

"I said nothing, my dear child, in your disparagement. On the contrary,
I congratulated him on his engagement. As I'm supposed to be acting as
your agent, or solicitor, or whatever it is I am acting as, I imagine I
did right. Is that so?"

"Yes; if that's all you said."

"It is not quite all. I sustained my character by giving him a hint, the
merest hint, that in the event of your marriage your worldly position
would be slightly altered. We must prepare him, you know, for the sudden
collapse of your income."

He rose and went to the mantelpiece, and lingered there over the
lighting of a cigarette.

"You hadn't thought of that?" he said as he seated himself again.

"No; I hadn't thought of it."

"Well, he didn't appear to have thought of it either."

"What did he say, when you told him that?"

"He said it didn't matter in the very least."

"I knew he would."

"He said, in fact, that nothing mattered."

"What did you say then?"

"Nothing. What could I say?"

She looked at him, trying to see deep into his design, trusting him no
further than she saw.

"Look here, Kitty, I think you're making a mistake, even from your own
point of view. You ought to tell him."

"I--can't."

"You must. He's such an awfully decent chap, you can't let him in for
marrying you without telling him." That was his point and he meant to
stick to it. "It's what you might call playing it low down on a
gu