“I know what you are feeling like, Michael,” she said. “It is hateful to have to triumph over people we like. And I know you like John Braintree.”
He looked at her for a moment over his shoulder and she was quite startled by the expression of his face.
“I didn’t know you liked him so much as that,” she said.
He turned his head away abruptly; indeed there was something strangely abrupt in his whole manner.
“But I know the other part of you as well,” she said. “You will do justice.”
“Yes,” he answered. “I shall do justice.” And he put his head on his hands.
She felt a fine reverence for his broken friendship and silently left the library.
A minute or two after he picked up his pen again and continued to annotate documents and turn over reports; but before doing so he looked for a mome
