"He told me to go back to you." "Why?" "Because he said"--Daphne's voice dropped low--"that you loved me." There was a long silence, until a live coal subsided in the grate. Then Juggernaut said-- "It was Carthew, I suppose." Daphne nodded. "Jack," she said, "Jim Carthew is the best friend that you and I possess." "I know it." They were silent again, until irrelevant Daphne enquired suddenly-- "Jack, what made you do that unpractical thing? The tea and sugar, I mean. It was only prolonging the strike: even _I_ can see that." "It didn't prolong the strike to any particular extent," said Juggernaut with decision. "Not that I care," he added with unusual inconsequence, "if it did. It made things no easier for the men; and it is with the men that the decision lies in cases of this kind." "But it was so _unlike_ you," persisted Daphne. Her husband turned and regarded her quizzically. "Was it?" he said, smiling. "We all have our weaknesses," he added. "Mine are women and children. I think," he went on with great deliberation, "that there is only one woman in this wide world who has ever suffered ill at my hands." "And she is----" "My wife! Listen," he continued rapidly, "while I make confession. You have spoken your piece bravely, Daphne. Now hear me mine." He rose in his turn, and stood before his wife. "I never knew or cared very much about women," he said. "I do not remember my mother, and I had no sisters, which probably accounts for a good deal. Also, I was brought up by a man among men, and I learned to read men and handle men to the exclusion of all else. I was given to understand that women did not matter. I was trained to regard them as a sort of inferior and unreliable variety of the male sex. So I confined my dealings to men, and I found so much joy in handling and mastering men that my eyes became closed to the fact that life could offer me anything else." "But didn't you miss female society? Most men can't get on without _some_," said experienced Daphne. "You can't miss what you have never had, little girl. Perhaps if I had encountered female society early in life----" "But didn't you sometimes instinctively long for a woman to come and take charge of you? Most men are so helpless and messy by themselves." "Sometimes," admitted Juggernaut almost reluctantly, "I did. But I put the notion from me." "Shall I tell you why?" said Daphne quietly. "I suppose it was because I didn't want to yield to a weakness." "It was nothing of the kind," said Daphne with immense decision. "It was because you were _afraid_!" "Afraid?"