“So you see, Percy, you can go no further in this,” went on the other after another interval of silence. “You must break it off—now, absolutely and at once. You quite see that, don’t you?”
“Of course. Great Heavens, Hilary—how I have been fooled!”
“You have certainly, but if it’s any consolation to you, so have others—so will others be—as long as Hermia is about. It isn’t pleasant to be obliged to give her away as I have done—and if it had concerned anybody other than yourself, anybody in whom I had no interest, I should have let the matter rigidly alone, as no business of mine, and kept a strict silence. But I couldn’t stand by and see your life utterly ruined at the start, and there are of course, circumstances in this particular case which rendered it ten times more necessary that you should be warned. I gave her the straight chance though. I told her if she broke off this engagement with you, I wouldn’t breathe a word as to her real identity, and she defied me. So now you know. And now you do know, there’s not the slightest chance of her getting you into the toils again, eh?”
“Good Heavens, no,” he answered emphatically, and in strong disgust. “What a fool I’ve been. What shall I do, Hilary? I don’t feel as if I could ever see her again. Do you think Bayfield would take me in for a few days if I went on now with you?”
“Take my advice, and go straight back. We don’t want to give her away further, and if you clear out abruptly now, it’ll likely have that effect. Besides it has rather a cowardly look. No, give her to understand that you know everything now, and of course there’s nothing more to be thought of between you.”
“I will. But—what an escape I’ve had. Still do you know, Hilary— Oh, dash it all, I was—er—beastly fond of her. Don’t you understand?”
“Well, rather—considering it’s a stage I’ve gone through myself,” answered the other, kindly. “You’ll get over it though. And, look here, Percy, I shall be leaving Bayfield’s myself in a day or two. How would you like to join me? We might go up-country together, and I could show you some real wild life. You see, I know my way about in those parts, and it would be a first-rate opportunity for you to see something of them. What do you say?”
“That’s a real splendid idea, Hilary.”
“Very well. Now go back and get this business over. Get it clean behind you mind, thoroughly and entirely. I’ll send you word in a couple of days at the outside where to join me, then roll up your traps and come straight along. How is that?”
“The very thing.”