"I can understand a fellow's
kissing a pretty woman--or a dozen if it comes to that, but I know
you're not the man to go where you're not certain you're wanted."
Now Mark hesitated, thinking that he had humiliated himself almost
enough. Seeing, however, that Jimmy was hanging upon his answer, he
felt compelled to belittle himself to the uttermost rather than allow
the slightest obstacle to remain between Bridget and this man who
appointed himself her champion.
"The truth is," said Mark, "I--well, I made a mistake."
"About Bridget?" demanded Jimmy eagerly.
"Yes," answered Mark. "I had no shadow of an excuse. From first to
last she had never given me the remotest reason. It was simply my own
egregious stupidity. To put it honestly, I acted like a bounder. I'm
immensely sorry, Jimmy."
Jimmy could not help feeling sore about it. For one thing, he
regretted the necessity to admit to Sybil that the false report
contained that one word of truth. Worse than this! an indignity had
been put on Bridget by Mark Driver, who seemed the last man in the
world to inflict it. Jimmy, however, realized that one of her most
potent charms was a delectable, seductive ingenuousness and
irresponsibility, which might, perhaps, on occasion prove a little
misleading to unregenerate man.
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