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“Twice?” He looked at her perplexedly, and her colour rose.

“I deceived you once–that night at your cousin’s, when I tried to get you to bribe me. Even then we meant to consent to the divorce–it was decided the first day that I saw you.” He was silent, and she added, with one of her mocking gestures: “You see from what a milieu you are taking her!”

Durham groaned. “She will never give up her son!”

“How can she help it? After you are married there will be no choice.”

“No–but there is one now.”

“Now?” She sprang to her feet, clasping her hands in dismay. “Haven’t I made it clear to you? Haven’t I shown you your course?” She paused, and then brought out with emphasis: “I love Fanny, and I am ready to trust her happiness to you.”

“I shall have nothing to do with her happiness,” he repeated doggedly.

She stood close to him, with a look intently fixed on his face. “Are you afraid?” she asked with one of her mocking flashes.

“Afraid?”

“Of not being able to make it up to her–?”

Their eyes met, and he returned her look steadily.

“No; if I had the chance, I believe I could.”

“I know you could!” she exclaimed.

“That’s the worst of it,” he said with a cheerless laugh.

“The worst–?”

“Don’t you see that I can’t deceive her? Can’t trick her into marrying me now?”

Madame de Treymes continued to hold his eyes for a puzzled moment after he had spoken; then she broke out despairingly: “Is happiness never more to you, then, than this abstract standard of truth?”

Durham reflected. “I don’t know–it’s an instinct. There doesn’t seem to be any choice.”

“Then I am a miserable wretch for not holding my tongue!”

He shook his head sadly. “That would not have helped me; and it would have been a thousand times worse for her.”

“Nothing can be as bad for her as losing you! Aren’t you moved by seeing her need?”

“Horribly–are not you?” he said, lifting his eyes to hers suddenly.

She started under his look. “You mean, why don’t I help you? Why don’t I use my influence? Ah, if you knew how I have tried!”

“And you are sure that nothing can be done?”

“Nothing, nothing: what arguments can I use? We abhor divorce–we go against our religion in consenting to it–and nothing short of recovering the boy could possibly justify us.”

Durham turned slowly away. “Then there is nothing to be done,” he said, speaking more to himself than to her.

He felt her light touch on his arm. “Wait! There is one thing more–” She stood close to him, with entreaty written on her small passionate face. “There is one thing more,” she repeated. “And that is, to believe that I am deceiving you again.”

He stopped short with a bewildered stare. “That you are deceiving me–about the boy?”

“Yes–yes; why shouldn’t I? You’re so credulous–the temptation is irresistible.”

“Ah, it would be too easy to find out–“

“Don’t try, then! Go on as if nothing had happened. I have been lying to you,” she declared with vehemence.

“Do you give me your word of honour?” he rejoined.

“A liar’s? I haven’t any! Take the logic of the facts instead. What reason have you to believe any good of me? And what reason have I to do any to you? Why on earth should I betray my family for your benefit? Ah, don’t let yourself be deceived to the end!” She sparkled up at him, her eyes suffused with mockery; but on the lashes he saw a tear.

He shook his head sadly. “I should first have to find a reason for your deceiving me.”

“Why, I gave it to you long ago. I wanted to punish you–and now I’ve punished you enough.”

“Yes, you’ve punished me enough,” he conceded.

The tear gathered and fell down her thin cheek. “It’s you who are punishing me now. I tell you I’m false to the core. Look back and see what I’ve done to you!”

He stood silent, with his eyes fixed on the ground. Then he took one of her hands and raised it to his lips.

“You poor, good woman!” he said gravely.

Her hand trembled as she drew it away. “You’re going to her–straight from here?”

“Yes–straight from here.”

“To tell her everything–to renounce your hope?”

“That is what it amounts to, I suppose.”

She watched him cross the room and lay his hand on the door.

“Ah, you poor, good man!” she said with a sob.