The man"s look still rested upon her with unflickering directness. Again that peculiar smile hovered about his grim mouth.
"Yes, I am human," he said, after a pause. "I do not esteem myself as above temptation. As you probably know, I am a self-made man, of very ordinary extraction. But--I do not feel tempted to take up Burleigh Wentworth"s defence. I am sorry if that fact should cause you any disappointment. I do not see why it should. There are plenty of other men--abler than I am--who would, I am sure, be charmed to oblige Lady Violet Calcott or any of her friends."
"That is not so," she broke in rapidly. "You know that is not so. You know that your genius has placed you in what is really a unique position.
Your name in itself is almost a mascot. You know quite well that you carry all before you with your eloquence. If--if you couldn"t get him acquitted, you could get him lenient treatment. You could save his life from utter ruin."
She clasped and unclasped her hands in nervous excitement. Her face was piteous in its strain and pathos.
And still Field looked unmoved upon her distress.
"I am afraid I can"t help you," he said. "My eloquence would need a very strong incentive in such a case as this to balance my lack of sympathy."
"What do you mean by--incentive?" she said, her voice very low. "I will do anything--anything in my power--to induce you to change your mind. I never lost hope until--I heard you had refused to defend him.
Surely--surely--there is some means of persuading you left!"
For the first time his smile was openly cynical.
"Don"t offer me money, please!" he said.
She flushed vividly, hotly.
"Mr. Field! I shouldn"t dream of it!"
"No?" he said. "But it was more than a dream with you when you first entered this room."
She dropped her eyes from his.
"I--didn"t--realise--" she said in confusion.
He bent forward slightly. It was an att.i.tude well known at the Law Courts. "Didn"t realise--" he repeated in his quiet, insistent fashion.
She met his look again--against her will.
"I didn"t realise what sort of man I had to deal with," she said.
"Ah!" said Field. "And now?"
She shrank a little. There was something intolerably keen in his calm utterance.
"I didn"t do it," she said rather breathlessly. "Please remember that!"
"I do," he said.
But yet his look racked her. She threw out her hands with a sudden, desperate gesture and rose.
"Oh, are you quite without feeling? What can I appeal to? Does position mean a great deal to you? If so, my brother is very influential, and I have influential friends. I will do anything--anything in my power. Tell me what--incentive you want!"
Field rose also. They stood face to face--the self-made man and the girl who could trace her descent from a Norman baron. He was broad-built, grim, determined. She was slender, pale, and proud.
For a moment he did not speak. Then, as her eyes questioned him, he turned suddenly to a mirror over the mantelpiece behind him and showed her herself in her unveiled beauty.
"Lady Violet," he said, and his speech had a steely, cutting quality, "you came into this room to bribe me to defend a man whom I believe to be a criminal from the consequences of his crime. And when you found I was not to be so easily bought as you imagined, you asked me if I were human.
I replied to you that I was human, and not above temptation. Since then you have been trying--very hard--to find a means to tempt me. But--so far--you have overlooked the most obvious means of all. You have told me twice over that you will do anything in your power. Do you mean--literally--that?"
He was addressing the face in the gla.s.s, and still his look was almost brutally emotionless. It seemed to measure, to appraise. She met it for a few seconds, and then in spite of herself she flinched.
"Will you tell me what you mean?" she said in a low voice.
He turned round to her again.
"Why did you come here yourself?" he said. "And at night?"
She was trembling.
"I had to come myself--as soon as I knew. I hoped to persuade you."
"You thought," he said mercilessly, "that, however I might treat others, I could never resist you."
"I hoped--to persuade you," she said again.
"By--tempting--me?" he said slowly.
She gave a great start. "Mr. Field--"
He put out a quiet hand, and laid it upon her bare arm.
"Wait a moment, please! As I said before, I am not above temptation--being human. You take a very personal interest in Burleigh Wentworth, I think?"
She met his look with quivering eyelids.
"Yes," she said.
"Are you engaged to him?" he pursued.
She winced in spite of herself.
"No."
He raised his brows.
"You have refused him, then?"
Her face was burning.
"He hasn"t proposed to me--yet," she said. "Perhaps he never will."
"I see." His manner was relentless, his hold compelling. "I will defend Burleigh Wentworth," he said, "upon one condition."
"What is that?" she whispered.