"I'll trouble you not
to whine, Nevile; I've got something to say to all this tale of yours.
I've got to ask you a thing or two. When you found her, now; and when you
knew all that she'd gone through--a child like that! You brought her up
here--hey?"
Without shifting his head to face his cross-examination, Ingram answered
between his hands--"No, I didn't. She wouldn't budge from her school till
she'd finished her course. I courted her for a month. It took me all that
to make her listen to reason."
"Reason!" Chevenix rated him. "You call it reason!"
"It was what _she_ called it--not I," said Ingram from between his fists.
Then he looked up. "She refused the idea of going abroad. Said she wasn't
at all afraid of people talking. Said she wanted to work for me. Must be
doing something, she said. I tell you, it was her idea from the beginning.
And I do say, myself, that it was reasonable." He searched for agreement
in his friend's face, but got none. "It suited better," he said presently,
with indifference. "It suited better--in every way. I had to be here."
"Why had you to be here, man?" Chevenix raised his voice. "What the devil
did it matter to you, having her, where you were?"
"It mattered a lot.
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