"Well," said Jimmy, "Carrissima insists that she saw you holding
Bridget in your arms--in the act of kissing her, to put it plainly."
This was a trying moment for Mark Driver. His face was crimson, and he
would have given a great deal to be able to deny the too soft
impeachment. As this was impossible, he lost his temper with
Carrissima. Egoism was probably the prime factor in his present mood.
He thought less of the excuse he had provided than of the painful
circumstance that he had been cutting such a sorry figure in her eyes.
While he flattered himself that she regarded him as a kind of king who
could do no wrong, she had, in truth, looked upon him as a pretty
contemptible scoundrel. It seemed an additional offence that she
should have dissembled her opinion, so that when he, being beguiled,
asked her to marry him, she might coolly send him about his business.
A suspicion of something, perhaps, resembling insincerity in his own
conduct made him only more intolerant of hers. He saw now how much
better it would have been, instead of trusting for immunity to her
ignorance, to have taken his courage in his hands and made a clean
breast of what, after all, was only a venial offence.
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