A sudden irresistible exultation took hold of me. I think it turned my face red, for Kortes smiled, saying, ‘Ah, you believe now, my lord!’
‘Believe!’ I cried. ‘No, I don’t believe. A thousand times, no! I don’t believe!’ For I was crushing that exultation now as a man crushes the foulest temptings.
A puzzled look invaded Kortes’s eyes. There was silence between us for some moments.
‘It’s absurd,’ said I, in weak protest. ‘She has known me only a few days—only a few hours rather—and there were other things to think of then than love-making.’
‘Love,’ said he, ‘is made most readily when a man does not think of it, and a stout arm serves a suitor better than soft words. You fought against her and for her; you proved yourself a man before her eyes. Fear not, my lord; she loves you.’
‘Fear not!’ I exclaimed in a low bitter whisper.
‘She said it herself,’ continued Kortes. ‘As her life, and more.’
‘Hold your tongue, man!’ I cried fiercely. ‘In the devil’s name, what has it to do with you?’
A great wonder showed on his face, then a doubting fear; he came closer to me and whispered so low that I hardly heard: