I'm not so like that as I
evidently appear; and if it's true that we're afraid other people
will do the things we'd be most likely to do ourselves, it seems
to me that I ought to be the one to be afraid. I ought to be
afraid that somebody may say something about me to you that will
make you believe I'm a professional forger."
"No. We both know they won't," she said. "We both know you're
the sort of person everybody in the world says nice things
about." She lifted her hand to silence him as he laughed at
this. "Oh, of course you are! I think perhaps you're a little
flirtatious--most quiet men have that one sly way with 'em--oh,
yes, they do! But you happen to be the kind of man everybody
loves to praise. And if you weren't, _I_ shouldn't hear anything
terrible about you. I told you I was unpopular: I don't see
anybody at all any more. The only man except you who's been to
see me in a month is that fearful little fat Frank Dowling, and I
sent word to HIM I wasn't home. Nobody'd tell me of your
wickedness, you see."
"Then let me break some news to you," Russell said. "Nobody
would tell me of yours, either. Nobody's even mentioned you to
me."
She burlesqued a cry of anguish. "That IS obscurity! I suppose
I'm too apt to forget that they say the population's about half a
million nowadays.
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