"But you told her about 'him'?" he persisted; "and when you say 'him,' I presume you refer to----?"
"Of course!" she answered, with a touch of impatience. "Whom else should I be _likely_ to refer to?"
"It's excessively absurd!" said Peter, driven to candour at last. "I--I remember perfectly that you did mention all the circumstances at the time: but I've a shocking memory for names; and, just for the minute, I--I find it difficult to recall where 'he' comes in exactly. Curious, isn't it?"
"Curious?" she said, passionately; "it's _abominable!_"
"It is," agreed Peter; "I quite admit that I _ought_ to know--only, I _don't_."
"This is cruel, unmanly!" she said, brokenly. "How _could_ you forget--how can you insult me by _pretending_ that you could forget such a thing as that? It is odious of you to make a--a joke of it all, when you know perfectly well that----"
"My--my dear young lady!" he declared, as she left her speech unfinished, "I am as far from any disposition to be jocular as ever I was in my life. Let me beg you to be a little more explicit. We seem to have got into a trifling misunderstanding, which, I am sure, a little patience will easily put right." ...
"Put right?" said Sophia, behind him. "I was not aware, Peter, that the clock was out of order. What is the matter with it?"
He almost staggered back from the chimneypiece, upon which he had found himself leaning in an attitude of earnest persuasion.
"I--I was only thinking, my love," he said, "that it wanted regulating."
"If it does," said Sophia, "you are hardly the proper person to do it, Peter. The less you meddle with it the better, I should think!"
"Perhaps so, my dear Sophia, perhaps so!" said Peter, sitting down with the utmost docility.
He had narrowly escaped exciting suspicion. It was fortunate that there was nothing compromising in the few words she had overheard, but he must not allow himself to be caught so near the clock again.
He was not a little disturbed by the tenor of this last interview. It was bad enough that in some way he seemed to have seriously displeased Miss Davenport; but, besides that, he could not contemplate without uneasiness the probable effect which her confidences, whatever their exact purport, might have upon Miss Tyrrell. For hitherto he had seen no necessity to mention to one young lady that he was even distantly acquainted with the other. As he never by any chance drew them both together, there seemed no object in volunteering such information.