"How did you manage?"

"I?" He spoke after a moment's pause with the calm of one who slightly
resents an invasion of his privacy.

"Did you pay the duties on your things?"

George realized now that he was face to face with a question which, as
lawyers say, required that the answer should be either "yes" or "no."
Still, he made one more attempt to avert the crucial inquiry.

"Does this really interest you?"

"Immensely. My whole future may be influenced by it."

"I see." There was no room left for doubt as to her meaning. Nor did
he choose to lie. "No, I paid no duties."

"I feared as much."

There was a painful silence. George rose, and walking to the
mantel-piece, looked down at the hearth and tapped the ironwork with
his foot. He would fain have made the best of what he ruefully
recognized to be a shabby situation by treating it jocosely; but her
grave, grieved demeanor forbade. Yet he ventured to remark:

"Why do you take this so seriously?"

"I expected better things of you."