"What's the good of that?"
"Consider for a minute, and you will see. You have trusted me with a
very awkward secret. I may be wrong--I never was mixed up in such a
matter before--but to present myself to this lady as your messenger
seems exposing her to a dreadful humiliation. Am I to go and tell her
to her face: 'I know what you are hiding from the knowledge of all the
world;' and is she to be expected to endure it?"
"Bosh!" said Geoffrey. "They can endure a deal more than you think.
I wish you had heard how she bullied me, in this very place. My good
fellow, you don't understand women. The grand secret, in dealing with a
woman, is to take her as you take a cat, by the scruff of the neck--"
"I can't face her--unless you will help me by breaking the thing to
her first. I'll stick at no sacrifice to serve you; but--hang it!--make
allowances, Geoffrey, for the difficulty you are putting me in. I am
almost a stranger; I don't know how Miss Silvester may receive me,
before I can open my lips."
Those last words touched the question on its practical side. The
matter-of-fact view of the difficulty was a view which Geoffrey
instantly recognized and understood.
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