She thought this over gravely, then said with a moment's openness of heart: "Forgive me, if I give you pain unjustly"; but at once again she changed, muttering stubbornly to herself with a certain vindictiveness: "If I mistrust you, it is not for nothing. I suppose you are all about equally pitiless and deadly. There she lies, low enough, dead, undone--so young--Gwen! was there no pity, no help, not even God to direct, not even God?"
Again she covered her face, and was shaken with grief, while Harcourt, yearning, but not daring to stir a step toward her, stood in pain; till presently she looked up at him sharply with all the former suspiciousness, saying with here a sob and there a sob: "But, after all, words are only words. You can all talk, I dare say; yet you have not been able to give me any valid explanation."
"Of your strange interest in this lady; of your presence here over her grave; of the fact that you chose to occupy the flat, knowing what you know of it. In my mind these are points against you."
He could not help smiling. "Let me reason with you," said he earnestly. "Remember that I am not the first person who has occupied the flat since the death of your sister. Did not a Miss L'Estrange have it before me? Well, my motive is precisely the same as hers--I wanted somewhere to live. You did not attribute to Miss L'Estrange any ulterior motive, I think? Then why attribute one to me?"
"I attribute nothing to any one," she sighed. "I merely ask for an explanation which you seem unable to give."
"Think, now! Have I not given it? I say that I wanted a flat and took this one. Don't mistrust me for nothing!"
"Oh, I keep a perfectly open mind. Till things are proved to me, I mistrust no one. But you make your excuses with rather too much earnestness to be convincing; for you would not care what I thought, if you had no motive."
"My motive is simply a desire to stand well with you," said David. "You won't punish me for that?"
Now for the first time she looked squarely at him, her eyes meditating gravely upon his face, as she said: "If you never knew my sister before, it was good of you to come to her grave. You do not look like one of the ruthless ones."
"No, I hope not. Thank you for saying that," said David, with his eyes on the ground. He was shy with women. Such a girl as this filled a shrine in his presence.