For a moment longer he continued to look at her enquiringly; then he turned away and took up his habitual stand by the mantel-piece. She drew a deep breath of relief .
“Won’t you please explain?” he said.
“I can’t explain: I don’t know. I didn’t even know–till she told you–that she really meant to break her engagement. All I know is that she came to me just now and said she wished to leave Givre today; and that Owen, when he heard of it–for she hadn’t told him–at once accused her of going away with the secret intention of throwing him over.”
“And you think it’s a definite break?” She perceived, as she spoke, that his brow had cleared.
“How should I know? Perhaps you can tell me.”
“I?” She fancied his face clouded again, but he did not move from his tranquil attitude.
“As I told you,” she went on, “Owen has worked himself up to imagining that for some mysterious reason you’ve influenced Sophy against him.”
Darrow still visibly wondered. “It must indeed be a mysterious reason! He knows how slightly I know Miss Viner. Why should he imagine anything so wildly improbable?”
“I don’t know that either.”
“But he must have hinted at some reason.”
“No: he admits he doesn’t know your reason. He simply says that Sophy’s manner to him has changed since she came back to Givre and that he’s seen you together several times–in the park, the spring-house, I don’t know where–talking alone in a way that seemed confidential–almost secret; and he draws the preposterous conclusion that you’ve used your influence to turn her against him.”
“My influence? What kind of influence?”
“He doesn’t say.”
Darrow again seemed to turn over the facts she gave him. His face remained grave, but without the least trace of discomposure. “And what does Miss Viner say?”
“She says it’s perfectly natural that she should occasionally talk to my friends when she’s under my roof– and refuses to give him any other explanation.”
“That at least is perfectly natural!”
Anna felt her cheeks flush as she answered: “Yes–but there is something—-”
“Something—-?”
“Some reason for her sudden decision to break her engagement. I can understand Owen’s feeling, sorry as I am for his way of showing it. The girl owes him some sort of explanation, and as long as she refuses to give it his imagination is sure to run wild.”
“She would have given it, no doubt, if he d asked it in a different tone.”
“I don’t defend Owen’s tone–but she knew what it was before she accepted him. She knows he’s excitable and undisciplined.”
“Well, she’s been disciplining him a little–probably the best thing that could happen. Why not let the matter rest there?”
“Leave Owen with the idea that you have been the cause of the break?”
He met the question with his easy smile. “Oh, as to that– leave him with any idea of me he chooses! But leave him, at any rate, free.”
“Free?” she echoed in surprise.
“Simply let things be. You’ve surely done all you could for him and Miss Viner. If they don’t hit it off it’s their own affair. What possible motive can you have for trying to interfere now?”
Her gaze widened to a deeper wonder. “Why–naturally, what he says of you!”
“I don’t care a straw what he says of me! In such a situation a boy in love will snatch at the most far-fetched reason rather than face the mortifying fact that the lady may simply be tired of him.”
“You don t quite understand Owen. Things go deep with him, and last long. It took him a long time to recover from his other unlucky love affair. He’s romantic and extravagant: he can’t live on the interest of his feelings. He worships Sophy and she seemed to be fond of him. If she’s changed it’s been very sudden. And if they part like this, angrily and inarticulately, it will hurt him horribly–hurt his very soul. But that, as you say, is between the two. What concerns me is his associating you with their quarrel. Owen’s like my own son–if you’d seen him when I first came here you’d know why. We were like two prisoners who talk to each other by tapping on the wall. He’s never forgotten it, nor I. Whether he breaks with Sophy, or whether they make it up, I can’t let him think you had anything to do with it.”