The Mission of Poubalov — page 175: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ee ee WHAT PAUL PALOVNA SAW. 171 again she smiled provokingly, but there was no invitation to feel at ease in her expression. Poubalov did not mis- interpret it, and it almost seemed as if he, the master mind, were discomposed. “Perhaps I do,’’ he admitted after a moment; “‘my habits of speech are not such as conduce to absolute candor even with you, whom I respect too highly to consciously deceive, Tell me, Miss Hilman, will you not, can you not believe that I tell you the truth?”’ ‘“‘T have thought about it a great deal,’’ replied Clara steadily, ‘‘and sometimes I almost think you do; but, you know, you have really had very little conversation with me,”’ ‘‘True enough, ard I must confess that I never found it so hard to take my part ina conversation as I do at this minute. I usually lead it, I may say dominate it,”’ and he smiled a little ; ‘‘usually, you see, 1 make people, men and women, believe me. I would beg you to, Miss Hilman, if only I knew how.”’ ‘‘Why try to compel me to stand on the same plane as you do?’’ asked Clara; ‘‘you confess your Labits of deceit. How can I promise to believe you without confessing that, for this moment at least, I accept your own style of inter- course?”’ ‘*‘You are an invincible logician, Miss Hilman,’’ ex- claimed Poubalov, compressing his lips. ‘‘I give up, and will let my words stand or fall on their merits, according as you judge them. I came here on Wednesday evening to tell you some things I had discovered. The man Billings 99 called before I had begun to speak. I departed unceremo- niously, because I did not wish to meet him.’’ ‘*T know that,’’ said Clara, simply. ‘‘I knew it at the time.’”’ ‘‘Of course you did,’’ responded Poubalov, crestfallen ; ‘‘you could not infer otherwise, and my confession has all the appearance, therefore, of a pitiably weak attempt to bolster up my claim to veracity.”’ ‘I do not interpret it that way. I can make my own test _ VOTE im