"You do not know what you are asking. I cannot!"
"I think it is you who do not understand. The matter is so simple; those letters, that journal——"
"No—no."
"You refuse?" he exclaimed. Indignation was even stronger than surprise.
"You do not know what you are asking!" she repeated. And the cry of passion in her voice again startled both him and Aspasia.
Bethune rose, took up his hat in silence; stood awhile, his steel-pale eyes flaming upon the woman whom his friend had, from all the world, chosen to make his wife.
"I trust you will think it over," said he at length, as soon as he could control himself sufficiently to speak.
He paused again; but Lady Gerardine made no reply. She was still fixing him with that inexplicable gaze that seemed one of terror.
"I shall call again," said he, well-nigh in the tone of a menace; then bowed and turned away. At the door he halted. "But perhaps you did not keep those papers?" he said, upon a sudden scornful thought.
Still she held her peace, and in his heart he knew that this random shaft of his had fallen wide of the mark; that, whatever might be the explanation of her attitude, it was not indifference.