His manner is so strange, so unpleasant, that Marian takes warning.
"Ah! That was an exaggeration.

One _does_ talk much folly, you know.
No--no! It was I only who said it--at least"-- hesitating--"I think so." She pauses to let her hesitation sink in, and to be as fatal as it can be.

"But you know I have always your interests at heart, and so I see things that, perhaps, others do not see." "One may see more than----" "True--true; and of course I am wrong.

No doubt I imagined it all.
But, even if it should be so," laughing and patting his arm softly, "who need wonder?
Your wife is so pretty--those little things often _are_ pretty--and he is her cousin--they grew up together, in a sense." "No, I think not." "At all events, they were much together when she was growing from child to girl.

And old associations--they----" She stops as if some dart has struck her.