"It may be too late to repair the injustice to the dead, Miss Vaughan; but I can and will at least step in to save the living!"
"What do you mean by that?"
"I mean Hartley! Have you ever stopped to think how you're ruining that man's life?"
"Ruined?—his life ruined?"
"Yes, or it soon will be! And for his sake, remember, for his sake alone I can make one final proposal to you. It is the only thing to do, and it is very simple. I can offer you the choice of giving up Hartley, of releasing him absolutely and completely, on the one hand, or of giving up The Silver Poppy, and all it stands for, on the other!"
She caught desperately at her last straw.
"I would," she said. "I would—and could do it, but he—he may refuse to accept his freedom!"
"You must take the one or the other. As for Hartley himself, I think when everything is laid before him plainly, he will see just how to act!"
"You," she cried in horror, "you wouldn't do that? You wouldn't tell him this—this lie?"
"I should have to; you have made it necessary."