mine. "Well," she said, "I tell you now that it is perfectly true." There was the same formality about it all, the same sense of mechanical arrangement; not as if she were playing a part, but as if she were going[Pg 84] through with an unpleasant purpose according to a preconceived plan. I tried to shift the burden of the situation. [Pg 84] "Why?" I asked. "It seems to me that this part of intruder has been made up and put upon me. Except for crossing lines that need never have been drawn, I don't understand what I have done." "Perhaps not. If you think a little, you will remember that when I asked you to go that night when—when you brought me here, I told you to forget us—that you were not to ask questions, nor try to see me again. I thought I made it very clear at that time. Are you the judge of my right to close my own door?" For a moment I was too much bewildered to answer. "When we met at the Ainslies'," I blurted, "you met me as a friend, as though nothing had broken what we began in the holidays. I can't believe that you were only playing a courteous part. You were your own open self. Everything was all right, I am very sure, until—until this man, this—your brother came for you." She gave a scornful little laugh, leaning back indolently in her chair. "Really, Mr. Crosby, aren't you rather overstating[Pg 85] the case? Have we been such very great friends? I have known you ten days—twelve days." [Pg 85] I nodded dumbly. "I have no wish to hurt you," she went on more gently, "but we have really nothing like a friendship to appeal to. I am not breaking anything, because there is nothing to break. When you left here—I thought that you understood me. I don't know what my family disliked in you, and I don't think I care to know. It has nothing to do with me. But this is what I dislike. You called up my father the next morning, and demanded reasons. You went to the beach, where you knew I was invited. Was I to cut you there? Was I to explain to mutual friends that I didn't want to meet you? I don't think you have treated our acquaintanceship particularly well, or that you have shown much regard for my plain
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