"No," said Waymark, shaking his head and smiling. "It isn't as you
think. It is perfectly understood between us that we are to be
agreeable company to each other, and absolutely nothing beyond that.
I have no motive for leading you astray in the matter. However
things were, I would tell you frankly."
There was another silence.
"Do you think there is anything like confidence between your wife
and her?" Waymark asked.
"That I hardly know. When I am present, of course they only talk
about ordinary women's interests, household affairs, and so on."
"Then you have no means of--well, of knowing whether she has
spoken about me to your wife in any particular way?"
"Nothing of the kind has ever been hinted to me"
"Waymark," Julian continued, after a pause, "you are a strange
fellow."
"In what respect."
"Do you mean to tell me honestly that--that you--"
"Well?--you mean to say, that I am not in love with the girl?"
"No, I wasn't going to say that," said Julian, with his usual
bashfulness, heightened in this case by some feeling which made him
pale. "I meant, do you really believe that _she_ has no kind of
regard for you beyond mere friendship?"
"Why? Have you formed any conclusions of your own on the point?"
"How could I help doing so?"
"And you look on me," said Waymark, after thinking for a moment, "as
an insensible dog, with a treasure thrown at his feet which he is
quite incapable of appreciating or making use of?"
"No.
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