 him, it was as if he had been familiarly talking for
hours. They baffled him because Sarah - well, Sarah was deep, deeper than she
had ever yet had a chance to show herself. He didn't say that this was partly
the effect of her opening so straight down, as it were, into her mother, and
that, given Mrs. Newsome's profundity, the shaft thus sunk might well have a
reach; but he wasn't without a resigned apprehension that, at such a rate of
confidence between the two women, he was likely soon to be moved to show how
already, at moments, it had been for him as if he were dealing directly with
Mrs. Newsome. Sarah, to a certainty, would have begun herself to feel it in him
- and this naturally put it in her power to torment him the more. From the
moment she knew he could be tormented -!
    »But why can you be?« - his companion was surprised at his use of the word.
    »Because I'm made so - I think of everything.«
    »Ah one must never do that,« she smiled. »One must think of as few things as
possible.«
    »Then,« he answered, »one must pick them out right. But all I mean is - for
I express myself with violence - that she's in a position to watch me. There's
an element of suspense for me, and she can see me wriggle. But my wriggling
doesn't matter,« he pursued. »I can bear it. Besides, I shall wriggle out.«
    The picture at any rate stirred in her an appreciation that he felt to be
sincere. »I don't see how a man can be kinder to a woman than you are to me.«
    Well, kind was what he wanted to be; yet even while her charming eyes rested
on him with the truth of this he none the less had his humour of honesty. »When
I say suspense I mean, you know,« he laughed, »suspense about my own case too!«
    »Oh yes - about your own case too!« It diminished his magnanimity, but she
only looked at him the more tenderly.
    »Not, however,« he went on, »that I want to talk to you about that. It's my
own little affair, and I mentioned it simply as part of Mrs. Pocock's
advantage.« No, no; though there was a queer present temptation in
