suddenly rose, demanding for once to be allowed to meet the shabby alien
on his own reckless level.

"Look here," said Cally, with a kind of tremulous eagerness, "I want to
tell you something...."

Yes, surely it was all a matter between herself and him: she could meet
his eyes now with no sense that did not add to her curious inner
exaltation. Had not these eyes said to her from the beginning that they
would give her no peace till she came to this?...

"You were right to say what you did that night. A puff of wind blew the
boat over after he got out. Mr. Dalhousie never knew I was upset."

The words dropped unafraid into a perfect silence. The girl's manner was
as simple, as undramatic, as possible. Yet, considering who these two
were, considering the intentions with which she had entered his Dabney
House not ten minutes before, no more startling words could have been
devised by the wit of man.

"He never knew," repeated Vivian, in a voice suddenly mechanical.

No doubt it was by his good fortune alone that he had avoided any
alarming change of expression, as he listened to the announcement which
seemed to shake and stagger his visible world. The girl was soaring upon
her unimagined moment of spiritual adventure. But V. Vivian stood like a
man turned to stone, gazing blind into a void....

Presently, out of the general chaos the young man's dazed mind stirred;
leapt to life. Thought shook him through like waves of pain. It came