“Let me try and get at the bottom of it”
“Let me try and get at the bottom of it”
“Let me try and get at the bottom of it”
“A mirror,” said Roger with the air of having extracted an important bit of evidence. “Umph— Why did he take it?”
“Roger, what’s the sense of going into all these details?”
“Evie,” with maddening obstinacy, all the more maddening because it was so mild, “if I’m to give an answer I must know. Did he intend to sell it?”
“Yes, he did.”
I was so angry that I felt ready to defend any one who stole anything from anybody.
“My dear girl,” said Roger, still mild but also reproachful, “how can you sit there and tell me that a man who steals a mirror intending to sell it is a fine person, quite noble in some respects?”
“I can’t tell you. I won’t. I asked you a simple question about a man—a man I just made up—and you cross-examine me as if I was being tried for murder and you were the lawyer on the other side.”
“But, Evie, I only was trying to do what you asked.”
“Well, stop trying. Let that man and his mirror drop or I’ll lose my temper.” I snatched up thepoker and began to poke the fire. “I’ve lost it now.” I poked furiously in illustration. “It’s too aggravating. I did so want your opinion about it.”
“Well, then, here it is—”
I stopped poking and leaned forward, so far forward that to keep my balance I had to put a foot on the fender.
“Has one a right to accept pecuniary aid for a person who has committed an offense—the first—without telling the benefactor of that offense? Is that it?”
“Yes.”
“I think one has.”
“You’re sure they needn’t tell the benefactor?”
“I wouldn’t. If you want to give a man a hand-up why rake up his past?”
I got it at last. My bad temper vanished. I was wreathed in smiles—
“Oh, Roger,” I cried joyously, “that’s just what I wanted you to say. It’s such a relief that we’ve worked it out at last,” and I heaved a sigh and put the other foot on the fender.
I sat for a moment, absently looking down, then I became conscious of my feet, side by side on the brass rail—two small patent leather points. I lookedalong the rail and there on the other side were Roger’s—two large patent leather points. They looked like four small black animals, perched in couples, sociably warming themselves by the blaze.
“What are you smiling at?” said Roger.
“How near we came to quarreling over an imaginary man stealing an imaginary mirror,” said I.