It was I who brought
Anderson to Jim's house, you know."

"Yes. I know."

"But I must confess that I did not know the nature of his errand. I,
myself, was seeking an advantage."

"No matter. It may eventually redound to our credit."

"I regret exceedingly of having been the occasion of Jim's misfortune."

Her eyes were cast down, her head bent forward as she walked in what
one might characterize a meditative mood.

"I, too, am sorry. But there are others."

"Many?"

"That I do not know. Later I shall tell you."

"And why not now?"

"I cannot."

It was a troublesome situation in which the two found themselves. Here
were two souls who loved each other greatly, yet without being able to
arrive at a mutual understanding on the subject. They were separated by
a filmy veil. The girl, naturally frank and unreserved, was intimidated
by the restrained and melancholy mien of her companion. Yet she felt
constrained to speak lest deception might be charged against her.
Stephen, troubled in his own mind over the supposed unfavorable
condition of affairs, skeptical of the affections of his erstwhile
confidante, felt, too, a like necessity to be open and explain all.

So they walked for a time, he thinking, and she waiting for him to
speak.

"For two reasons I cannot tell you," he went on. "First, the nature of
the work is so obscure and so incomplete that I could give you no
logical nor concise account of what I am doing. As a matter of fact, I,
myself, am still wandering in a sort of maze. The other reason is that I
have taken the greatest care to say no word in any way derogatory to the
character of Mr. Anderson."

"You wouldn't do that."

"That's just it. I should not want to be the cause of your forming an
opinion one way or the other concerning him. I would much prefer you to
discover and to decide for yourself."

"That is charity."

"Perhaps!"

"And tact."

She peeped at him, her lips parted in a merry smile. Evidently she was
in a flippant mood.

"It would be most unfair to him were I to establish a prejudice in your
mind against him."

"Yet you have already disapproved of my friendship with him."

"I have, as I already have told you."

"Yet you have never told me the reason," she reminded him.

"I cannot."

He shook his head.

For he would not wound her feelings for the world; and still it pained
him to be compelled to leave her in a state bordering on perplexity, not
to say bewilderment,