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III.]
THE EUROPEANS.
125
"Did you ever know me to tell an untruth?"
"Yes, lots of them!" said Clifford, seeing an opening, out of the discussion, for his sarcastic powers. "Well," he presently added, "I thought you were my father."
"You knew some one was there?"
"We heard you coming in."
Acton meditated. "You had been with the Baroness, then?"
"I was in the parlour. We heard your step outside. I thought it was my father."
"And on that," asked Acton, "you ran away?"
"She told me to go—to go out by the studio."
Acton meditated more intensely; if there
