"It amounts to this. That I have been acting like a pretty miserable
humbug and scoundrel combined."
"Mark!" faltered Carrissima, "I didn't. I couldn't have said anything
of the sort."
"Then Sybil deliberately invented the story!"
"But what--what story?" said Carrissima.
"The charming little tale she repeated to Jimmy!"
"If only you could manage to be a little more explicit," urged
Carrissima, with a suggestion of annoyance in her tone.
"Oh, I shall speak out plainly enough," said Mark. "Sybil told Jimmy I
had been carrying on a wretched intrigue with Bridget--neither more nor
less. She gave you as her authority."
"She had no right," exclaimed Carrissima, and for an instant Mark's
face cleared.
"Do you mean to say that you haven't mentioned my name to Sybil in such
a connection?" he demanded, taking a step nearer.
"Yes, I mentioned your name," Carrissima admitted. "But I could never
have said that--never! I feel almost certain I couldn't."
"Good heavens!" cried Mark, "you don't seem to know what you told her
and what you didn't!"
Strange as it might appear to him, that was precisely the truth.
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