In any case," he hurried on, as Davenant
seemed about to speak, "I don't want you to be under any misapprehension
about the affair. There's nothing extenuating in it whatever--that is,
nothing but the intention to 'put it back' that goes with practically
every instance of"--he hesitated long--"every instance of embezzlement,"
he finished, bravely. "It began this way--"
"I don't want to know how it began," Davenant said, hastily. "I'm
satisfied with knowing the situation as it is."
"But I want to tell you. In proportion as I'm open with you I shall
expect you to be frank with me."
"I don't promise to be frank with you."
"Anyhow, I mean to set you the example."
He went on to speak rapidly, feverishly, with that half-hysterical
impulse toward confession from the signs of which Davenant had shrunk on
the previous evening. As Guion himself had forewarned, there was nothing
new or unusual in the tale. The situations were entirely the
conventional ones in the drama of this kind of unfaithfulness. The only
element to make it appealing, an element forcibly present to Davenant's
protective instincts, was the contrast between what Guion had been and
what he was to-day.
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