"You wish me to be frank?"

"If I had thought you would not be frank I would not have asked you.
Do you imagine it is my habit to go about putting awkward questions
like that?"

"I think you did upset him very much."

"You think I was wrong?"

"I do."

"Perhaps you are right," she admitted.

I had been bold. A desire took me to be still bolder. She was in the
carriage with me. She was not older than I. And were she Rosetta Rosa,
or a mere miss taken at hazard out of a drawing-room, she was feminine
and I was masculine. In short--Well, I have fits of rashness
sometimes.

"You say he is depressed," I addressed her firmly. "And I will
venture to inform you that I am not in the least surprised."

"Oh!" she exclaimed. "And why?"

"After what you said to him that night in the dressing-room. If I had
been in Alresca's place I know that I should be depressed, and very
much depressed, too."