My answer seemed to relieve her, though I could not tell what gave me the impression. ‘You are welcome to yours, and I will keep mine,’ she said. ‘I only wanted to explain Miss Brotherton’s condescension yesterday.’ ‘I thought you were going to explain why you didn’t come to-day.’ ‘That is only a re-action. I have no doubt she thinks she went too far yesterday.’ ‘That is absurd. She was civil; that was all.’ ‘In reading your thermometer, you must know its zero first,’ she replied sententiously. ‘Is the sword you call yours there still?’ ‘Yes, and I call it mine still.’ ‘Why don’t you take it, then? I should have carried it off long ago.’ ‘To steal my own would be to prejudice my right,’ I returned. ‘But I have often thought of telling Sir Giles about it.’ ‘Why don’t you, then?’ ‘I hardly know. My head has been full of other things, and any time will do. But I should like to see it in its own place once more.’ I had taken it from the wall, and now handed it to her. ‘Is this it?’ she said carelessly. ‘It is--just as it was carried off my bed that night.’ ‘What room were you in?’ she asked, trying to draw it from the sheath. ‘I can’t tell. I’ve never been in it since.’ ‘You don’t seem to me to have the curiosity natural to a--’ ‘To a woman--no,’ I said. ‘To a man of spirit,’ she retorted, with an appearance of indignation. ‘I don’t believe you can tell even how it came into your possession!’ ‘Why shouldn’t it have been in the family from time immemorial?’ ‘So!--And you don’t care either to recover it, or to find out how you lost it!’ ‘How can I? Where is Mr Close?’ ‘Why, dead, years and years ago.’ ‘So I understood. I can’t well apply to him, then, and I am certain no one else knows.’ ‘Don’t be too sure of that. Perhaps Sir Giles--’ ‘I am positive Sir Giles knows nothing about it.’ ‘I have reason to think the story is not altogether unknown in the family.’ ‘Have you told it, then?’ ‘No, but I _have_ heard it alluded to.’ ‘By Sir Giles?’ ‘No.’ ‘By whom, then?’ ‘I will answer no more questions.’ ‘Geoffrey, I suppose?’ ‘You are not polite. Do you suppose I am bound to tell you all I know?’ ‘Not by any means. Only, you oughtn’t to pique a curiosity you don’t mean to satisfy.’ ‘But if I’m not at liberty to say more?--All I meant to say was that, if I were you, I _would_ get back that sword.’ ‘You hint at a secret, and yet suppose I could carry off its object as I might a rusty nail, which any passer-by would be made welcome to!’ ‘You might take it first, and mention the thing to Sir Giles afterwards.’ ‘Why not mention it first?’ ‘Only on the supposition you had not the courage to claim it.’ ‘In that case I certainly shouldn’t have the courage to avow the deed afterwards. I don’t understand you, Clara.’ She laughed. ‘That is always your way,’ she said. ‘You take everything so seriously! Why couldn’t I make a proposition without being supposed to mean it?’