Sir Wingrave Seton has placed himself outside the pale
of honorable men."
"Your judgment," Aynesworth answered quietly, "seems to me severe. Sir
Wingrave Seton has been the victim of peculiar circumstances."
Barrington looked at his companion thoughtfully. He was wondering
exactly how much he knew.
"You defend him," he remarked. "That is because you have not yet found
out what manner of man he is."
"In any case," Aynesworth answered, "I am not his judge. Mr.
Barrington," he added, "You must forgive me if I remind you that this
is a somewhat unprofitable discussion."
A short silence followed. With Barrington it did not appear to be a
silence of irresolution. He was leaning a little forward in his chair,
and his head was resting upon his hand. Of his companion he seemed for
the moment to have become oblivious. Aynesworth watched him curiously.
Was he looking back through the years, he wondered, to that one brief
but lurid chapter of history; or was it his own future of which he was
thinking,--a future which, to the world, must seem so full of
brilliant possibilities, and yet which he himself must feel to be so
fatally and miserably insecure?
"Mr. Aynesworth," he said at last, "I suppose from a crude point of
view I am here to bribe you."
Aynesworth shrugged his shoulders.
"Is it worth while?" he asked a little wearily. "I have tried to be
civil--but I have also tried to make you understand.
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