He reflected for a moment when Keene ceased to speak.
'What did you say ?' he then asked, still bluntly, but with less anger.
'Just tell me the words, as far as you can remember.' Keene was at no loss to recall inoffensive phrases; in another long speech, full of cajolery sufficiently artful for the occasion, he represented himself as having merely protested against misrepresentations obviously sharpened by malice.
'It is just possible that I made some reference to her _character_,' he admitted, speaking more slowly, and as if desirous that no word should escape his hearer; 'but it did not occur to me to guard against misunderstandings of the word.

I might have remembered that it has such different meanings on the lips of educated and of uneducated men.

You, of course, would never have missed my thoughts.' 'If I might suggest,' he added, when Mutimer kept silence, I think, if you condescend to notice the letter at all, you should reply only in the most general terms.

Who is this man Dabbs, I wonder, who has the impudence to write to you in this way ?' 'Oh, one of the Hoxton Socialists, I suppose,' Mutimer answered carelessly.

'I remember the name.' 'A gross impertinence! By no means encourage them in thinking you owe explanations.