to quarrel with me about nothing--absolutely about nothing. You know
quite well that I meant no harm to you by lending Mr. Roscorla that
money, yet you must needs flare up and give it me as hot as you could,
all for nothing. What could I do? Why, only wait until you saw what a
mistake you had made."

"It was very wrong of me," she said: "I ask your forgiveness. But now it
is quite different: I am not angry with you at all. I should like to
remain your friend, and yet I think it better not. I--I cannot explain
to you, Mr. Trelyon, and I am sure you won't ask me when I say so."

He looked at her for a moment, and then he said, gently and yet firmly,
"Look here, Wenna. You think I am only a boy--that may or may not
be--but I am going to talk reasonably to you for once. Come over to this
chair by the window and sit down."

She followed him in passive obedience. She took the one chair, he the
other.

"Perhaps I am only a boy," he said, "but I have knocked about a good
deal, and I have kept my eyes as wide open as most folks. I suppose
ill-natured people might say that as I had nothing to do at Eglosilyan,
I wanted to have a flirtation with the only girl who was handy. I know
better. Year after year I saw more and more of you, bit by bit, and that
after I had been abroad or living in other places in England from time
to time. I got to believe that I had never seen anywhere any girl or
woman who was so honest as you are, and good in a dozen secret ways that
needed a deal of discovering. I found out far more about you than you
imagined. I heard of you in cottages that you never knew I was in; and
everything I heard made me respect you more and more. Mind this, too. I