Durham raised his head quickly. "By letting me do something in
return?"

She made an assenting motion. "By asking you to answer a question."

"That seems very little to do."

"Don't be so sure! It is never very little to your race." She leaned
back, studying him through half-dropped lids.

"Well, try me," he protested.

She did not immediately respond; and when she spoke, her first words
were explanatory rather than interrogative.

"I want to begin by saying that I believe I once did you an
injustice, to the extent of misunderstanding your motive for a
certain action."

Durham's uneasy flush confessed his recognition of her meaning. "Ah,
if we must go back to _that_--"

"You withdraw your assent to my request?"

"By no means; but nothing consolatory you can find to say on that
point can really make any difference."

"Will not the difference in my view of you perhaps make a difference
in your own?"