to risk offending you."

Columbine stood up with the free movement of a disdainful princess. "Oh,
he's just a lout," she said. "He doesn't know any better. It isn't as if
you had done it."

"That would have been different, would it?" said Knight.

She smiled, but a sombre light still shone in her eyes. "Quite
different," she said with simplicity. "You see, you're a gentleman.
And--gentlemen--don't do unpleasant things like that."

He laughed a little. "You make me feel quite nervous. What a shocking
thing it would be if I ever did anything to forfeit your good opinion."

"You couldn't," said Columbine.

"Couldn't!" He repeated the word with an odd inflection.

"It wouldn't be you," she explained with the utmost gravity, as one
stating an irrefutable fact.

"Thank you," said Knight.

"Oh, it's not a compliment," she returned. "It's just the truth. There
are some people--a few people--that one knows one can trust through and
through. And you are one of them, that's all."

"Is that so?" said Knight. "You know, that's rather--a colossal
thing--to say of any one."