"There wouldn't be any harm, perhaps; there would only be
an--impossibility." She worked very busily, and spoke in a low voice,
without looking up. "A gift implies two conditions--on the one side the
right to offer, and on the other the freedom to take."

"But I should say that those conditions existed--between Mr. Guion and
me."

"But not between you and me. Don't you see? That's the point. To any
such transaction as this I have to be, in many ways, the most important
party."

Again he was tempted to reject this interpretation; but, once more, on
second thought, he allowed it to go uncontested. When he spoke it was to
pass to another order of question.

"I wonder how much you know?"

"About my father's affairs? I know everything."

"Everything?"

"Yes; everything. He told me yesterday. I didn't expect him to come home
last night at all; but he came--and told me what you had proposed."

"You understood, then," Davenant stammered, "that he might have
to--to--go away?"

"Oh, perfectly."