“To be sure! I saw it on Miss Vyner’s hand.”
“Impossible!”
“Sure!”
“But how?”
“Thou mayst well ask ‘how.’ Piers gave it to her.”
“I wouldn’t believe such a thing, not on a seven-fold oath.”
“Thou knowest little about men. There are times when they would give their souls away. Thou knowest nothing about such women as Miss Vyner. They have a power that while it lasts is omnipotent. Antony lost a world for Cleopatra, and Herod would have given half, yes, the whole of his kingdom to a dancing woman, if she had asked him for it.”
“Those men were pagans, John, and lived in foreign countries. Christian men in England–”
“Christian men in England, in proportion to their power, do things just as reckless and wicked. Piers Exham has never learned any control; he has always given himself, or had given him, whatever he wanted. And I can tell thee, there is a perfect witchery about Miss Vyner in some hours. She has met Exham in a favourable time, and begged the ring from him.”
“I cannot believe it. Why should she do such a thing? She must have had a reason.”