"I have the right," cried d.i.c.k.
"Hush!" said Austin, interposing.
"There"s no need to prolong this painful discussion. To-morrow--as Viviette"s guardian--"
"To-morrow?" d.i.c.k shouted. "Where shall I be to-morrow? Away from here--unable to defend her--unable to say a word."
"If you said a thousand words," said Viviette, "they wouldn"t make an atom of difference. Lord Banstead has asked me to marry him. I have accepted him openly. What dare you say to it?"
"Yes," said Banstead. "She has made no bones about it. I"ve asked her five times. Now she accepts me. What have you to say to it?"
"I say she shan"t marry you," said d.i.c.k, glaring at the other.
"Steady, steady, d.i.c.k," said Austin warningly. But d.i.c.k shook his warning angrily aside, and Austin saw that, once again that day, d.i.c.k was desperate.
"Not while I live shall she marry you. Don"t I know your infernal beastly life?"
"Now, look here," said Banstead, at bay. "What the deuce have you got to do with my affairs?"
"Everything. Do you think she loves you, cares for you, honours you, respects you?"
Viviette faced him with blazing eyes.
"I do," she said defiantly.
"It"s a lie," cried d.i.c.k. "It"s you that are lying now. Heaven and earth! I"ve suffered enough to-day--I thought I had been through h.e.l.l--but it"s nothing to this. She loves me--do you hear me?--me--me--me--and I can"t marry her--and I don"t care a d.a.m.n who knows the reason."
"Stop, man," said Austin.
"Let me be. She shall know the truth. Everyone shall know the truth. At any rate, it will save her from this."
"I will do it quietly, later, d.i.c.k."
"Let me be, I tell you," said d.i.c.k, with great, clumsy, pa.s.sionate gesture. "Let"s have no more lies." He turned to Viviette. "You wrote me a letter. You said you loved me--would marry me--come out to Vancouver--the words made me drunk with happiness--at first. You saw me.
I refused your love and your offer. I said I didn"t love you. I lied. I said I couldn"t marry you. It was the truth. I can"t. I can"t. But love you! Oh, my G.o.d! My G.o.d! There were flames of h.e.l.l in my heart--but couldn"t you see the love shining through?"
"Don"t, d.i.c.k, don"t," cried Katherine.
"I will," he exclaimed wildly. "I"ll tell her why I can"t marry any woman. I tried to murder Austin this afternoon!"
Katherine closed her eyes. She had guessed it. But Viviette, with parted lips and white cheeks, groped her way backwards to a chair, without shifting her terror-stricken gaze from d.i.c.k; and sitting, she gripped the arms of the chair.
There was a moment of tense silence. Banstead at last relieved his feelings with a gasping, "Well, I"m d.a.m.ned!"
d.i.c.k continued:
"It was jealousy--mad jealousy--this afternoon--in the armoury--the mock duel--one of the pistols was loaded. I loaded it--first, in order to kill him out of hand--then I thought of the duel--he would have his chance--either he would kill me or I would kill him. Mine happened to be loaded. It missed fire. It was only the infinite mercy of G.o.d that I didn"t kill him. He found it out. He has forgiven me. He"s worth fifty millions of me. But my hands are red with his blood, and I can"t touch your pure garments. They would stain them red--and I should see red again before my eyes some day. A man like me is not fit to marry any woman. A murderer is beyond the pale. So I said I didn"t love her to save her from the knowledge of this horror. And now I"m going to the other side of the world to work out my salvation--but she shall know that a man loves her with all his soul, and would go through any torment and renunciation for her sake--and, knowing that, she can"t go and throw herself away on a man unworthy of her. After what I"ve told you, will you marry this man?"
Still looking at him, motionless, she whispered, "No."
"I say!" exclaimed Banstead. "I think--"
Austin checked further speech. d.i.c.k looked haggardly round the room.
"There. Now you all know. I"m not fit to be under the same roof with you. Good-bye."
He slouched in his heavy way to the door, but Viviette sprang from her chair and planted herself in his path.
"No. You shan"t go. Do you think I have nothing to say?"
"Say what you like," said d.i.c.k sadly. "Nothing is too black for me.
Curse me, if you will."
She laughed, and shook her head. "Do you think a woman curses the man who would commit murder for the love of her?" she cried, with a strange exultation in her voice. "If I loved you before--don"t you think I love you now a million times more?"
d.i.c.k fell back, thrilled with amazement.
"You love me still?" he gasped. "You don"t shrink--"
"Excuse me," interrupted Banstead, crossing the room. "Does this mean that you chuck me, Miss Hastings?"
"You must release me from my promise, Lord Banstead," she said gently.
"I scarcely knew what I was doing. I"m very sorry. I"ve not behaved well to you."
"You"ve treated me d.a.m.ned badly," said Banstead, turning on his heel.
"Good-bye, everybody."
Austin, moved by compunction, tried to conciliate the angry youth, but he refused comfort. He had been made a fool of, and would stand that from n.o.body. He would not stay for dinner, and would not put his foot inside the house again.
"At any rate," said Austin, bidding him good-bye, "I can rely on you not to breathe a word to anyone of what you"ve heard this evening?"
Banstead fingered his underfed moustache.
"I may be pretty rotten, but I"m not that kind of cad," said he. And he went, not without a certain dignity.
d.i.c.k took Viviette"s hand and kissed it tenderly.
"G.o.d bless you, dear. I"ll remember what you"ve said all my life. I can go away almost happy."
"You can go away quite happy, if you like," said Viviette. "Take me with you."
"To Vancouver?"
Austin joined them. "It is impossible, dear," said he.
"I go with him to Vancouver," she said.
d.i.c.k wrung his hands. "But I daren"t marry you, Viviette, I daren"t, I daren"t."