"It is not for that, Eva. I care not at all whether my name be remembered. It is for the good of many that I act."
"He believes in no good, but is willing to go because of his promise. Is it fair to keep him to such a promise under such circumstances?"
"But the law—"
"I will hear nothing of the law. The law means you and your influences. Papa is to be sacrificed to the law to suit your pleasure. Papa is to be destroyed, not because the law wishes it, but to suit the taste of Mr Neverbend."
"Oh, Eva!"
"It is true."
"To suit my taste?"
"Well—what else? You have got the idea into your head, and you will not drop it. And you have persuaded him because he is your friend. Oh, a most fatal friendship! He is to be sacrificed because, when thinking of other things, he did not care to differ with you." Then she paused, as though to see whether I might not yield to her words. And if the words of any one would have availed to make me yield, I think it would have been hers as now spoken. "Do you know what people will say of you, Mr Neverbend?" she continued.
"What will they say?"
"If I only knew how best I could tell you! Your son has asked me—to be his wife."