The Inheritors

"[...] "You see," she answered, "the rudiments of the sense are there." "You must excuse me if I fail to understand," I said, grasping after fragments of dropped dignity. "I am subject to fits of giddiness." I felt a need for covering a species of nakedness. "Pardon my swearing," I added; a proof of recovered equanimity. We resumed the road in silence. I was physically and mentally shaken; and I tried to deceive myself as to[...]".