He looked quite excited at the way she put it. "Oh they don't know!"

"Don't know I'm not stupid? No, how should they?"

"Yes, how should they?" said the Captain sympathetically. "But isn't
'horrors' rather strong?"

"What you _do_ is rather strong!" the girl promptly returned.

"What _I_ do?"

"Your extravagance, your selfishness, your immorality, your crimes," she
pursued, without heeding his expression.

"I _say_!"--her companion showed the queerest stare.

"I like them, as I tell you--I revel in them. But we needn't go into
that," she quietly went on; "for all I get out of it is the harmless
pleasure of knowing. I know, I know, I know!"--she breathed it ever so
gently.

"Yes; that's what has been between us," he answered much more simply.

She could enjoy his simplicity in silence, and for a moment she did so.
"If I do stay because you want it--and I'm rather capable of that--there
are two or three things I think you ought to remember. One is, you know,
that I'm there sometimes for days and weeks together without your ever
coming."

"Oh I'll come every day!" he honestly cried.