“Men are not always correct judges of women’s actions,” she said, “and I do not think Everard understands me at all. Our marriage in that hasty manner was unwise, but if I erred I surely have paid the severest penalty. Such things fall more heavily upon women than upon men, and I dare say you think better of Everard this moment than you do of me.” Rossie could not say she didn’t, for there was something in Josephine’s manner which she did not like. It seemed to be all acting, and to one who never acted a part, it was very distasteful. But she tried to evade the direct question by answering: “I have known Everard so long that I must of course think better of him than of a stranger. He has been so kind to me;” then, wishing to turn the conversation into a channel where she felt she should be safer, she plunged at once into her plan of leaving the house to Josephine, saying that she had never thought it right for her to have it, and speaking of the judge’s last illness, when she was certain he repented of what he had done. At first Josephine made a very pretty show of protesting against it. “It is _your own_ home,” she said, “and though I appreciate your great kindness, I cannot feel that it is right to take it from you.” “But I thought you understood that it was quite a settled thing that I am to go away, as I have always intended doing. Everard told you so. Surely he explained it to you,” Rossie said, in some surprise. Josephine did not quite know how to deal with a nature like Rossie’s, but she guessed that for once it would be necessary for her to say very nearly what she thought, and so for a few moments the two talked together earnestly and soberly of the future, when Rossie would be gone and Josephine left in charge. “You will only be taking what is yours a little in advance,” Rossie said, “for when I am of age I shall deed it back to Everard; and then, on the principle that what is a man’s is also his wife’s, it will be yours, and I hope that long before that it will be well with you and Everard; that the misunderstanding between you will be cleared up; that he will do right, and if,—if,—you are conscious of any defect in your character which annoys him, you will overcome it and try to be what he would like his wife to be, for you might be so happy with him, if only you loved each other.”