listen. I simply will not!" Then bewildered, hurt, and blindly confused
as she was, the instinct to defend flashed up--though from what she was
defending him she did not realise: "It is utterly untrue!" she exclaimed
hotly--"all that yo--all that _they_ say!--whoever they are--whatever
they mean. I cannot understand it--I don't understand, and I will not!
Nor will _he_!" she added with a scornful conviction that disconcerted
Rosamund; "for if you knew him as I do, Mrs. Fane, you would never,
never have spoken as you have."

Mrs. Fane relished neither the naive rebuke nor the intimation that her
own acquaintance with Selwyn was so limited; and least of all did she
relish the implied intimacy between this red-haired young girl and
Captain Selwyn.

"Dear Miss Erroll," she said blandly, "I spoke as I did only to assure
you that I, also, disregard such malicious gossip--"

"But if you disregard it, Mrs. Fane, why do you repeat it?"

"Merely to emphasise to you my disbelief in it, child," returned
Rosamund. "Do you understand?"

"Y-es; thank you. Yet, I should never have heard of it at all if you had
not told me."

Rosamund's colour rose one degree:

"It is better to hear such things from a friend, is it not?"

"I didn't know that one's friends said such things; but perhaps it is
better that way, as you say, only, I cannot understand the necessity of
my knowing--of my hearing--because it is Captain Selwyn's affair, after
all."

"And that," said Rosamund deliberately, "is why I told _you_."

"Told _me_? Oh--because he and I are such close friends?"

"Yes--such very close friends that I"--she laughed--"I am informed that
your interests are soon to be identical."

The girl swung round, self-possessed, but dreadfully pale.

"If you believed that," she said, "it was vile of you to say what you
said, Mrs. Fane."

"But I did _not_ believe it, child!" stammered Rosamund, several
degrees redder than became her, and now convinced that it was true. "I
n-never dreamed of offending you, Miss Erroll--"

"Do you suppose I am too ignorant to take offence?" said the girl
unsteadily. "I told you very plainly that I did not understand the
matters you chose for discussion; but I do understand impertinence when
I am driven to it."

"I am very, very sorry that you believe I meant it that way," said
Rosamund, biting her lips.

"What did you mean? You are older than I, you are certainly experienced;
besides, you are married.