If it had been so, surely she would not herself have said so.

And yet he was aware how common it is for a delinquent to cover his own delinquency by declaring it.

'Of course I am idle,' says the idle one, escaping the disgrace of his idleness by his honesty.

'I have caught you!' There is something soothing to the vanity in such a declaration from a pretty woman.

That she should have wished to catch you is something;--something that the net should itself be so pleasant, with its silken meshes! But the declaration may not the less be true and the fact unpleasant.