behind in a company where he had trusted, and his eyes seemed to be
saying to her quite distinctly: "Don't you worry about _me!_ Just give
me a minute or two, and _I'll_ be all right...."

But all that his actual voice said, in rather a remote way, was:

"What a terrific hypocrite you must think me!... I hadn't realized ..."

It was precisely the point that Carlisle Heth had been trying to
establish, for a long, long time. Yet now, in the moment of triumph, her
gaze suddenly wavered from his; and she heard herself, to her own secret
confusion, saying hurriedly and weakly:

"At least, I understood--some one _told_ me--you hadn't.... Of course
you--you _might_ have given something, and--this person not have
known...."

But Jack Dalhousie's friend only answered, in the same detached way:

"It's unpardonable, my detaining you this way. I'd no idea ... May I
show you the way up--"

"No--_no!_ Please wait!..."

He waited, silent. Carlisle, having paused long enough to take firm hold
of her consciousness of vast superiorities, resumed more strongly:

"Perhaps I ought to explain why I--thought that. I was told that the
whole thing had fallen through, when a--a wealthy subscriber stepped in
and secretly gave a very large amount--had bought the building for you.