'Suppose that had lain there when you came into this room alone.
Should you have opened it and examined the contents ?' 'I should not--you know it.' 'Very well.

You would simply have taken it for granted that I was to be trusted to look after my own affairs, until I asked someone else's aid or advice.

Is not that the case at present ?' A man more apt at dissimulation would have treated the matter from the first with joking irony, and might have carried his point, though with difficulty.

Wilfrid had not the aptitude, to begin with, and he was gravely disturbed.

His pulses were throbbing; scarcely could he steady his voice.