“It is very unfortunate,” he declared. “The commission on the letting of Grantham House would have been worth having.”
“After all, it is only your firm's loss,” she reminded him.
“It does not appeal to me like that,” he continued. “So long as I am manager for Dowling & Spence, I feel these things personally. However, that does not matter. I am afraid it is a disagreeable subject for you, and we will not talk about it any longer.”
She lit a cigarette with a little gesture of relief. She came once more to his side.
“Leonard,” she said, “I know that I am treating you badly in telling you nothing, but it is simply because I do not want to descend to half truths. I should like to tell you all or nothing. At present I cannot tell you all.”
“Very well,” he replied, “I am quite content to leave it with you to do as you think best.”
“Leonard,” she continued, “of course you think me unreasonable. I can't help it. There are things between my sister and myself the knowledge of which is a constant nightmare to me. During the last few months of my life it has grown to be a perfect terror. It sent me into hiding at Blenheim House, it reconciled me even to the decision I came to that night on the Embankment. I had decided that sooner than go back, sooner than ask help from her or any one connected with her, I would do what I tried to do the time when you saved my life.”
Tavernake looked at her wonderingly. She was, indeed, under the spell of some deep emotion. Her memory seemed to have carried her back into another world, somewhere far away from this dingy little sitting-room which they two were sharing together, back into a world where life and death were matters of small moment, where the great passions were unchained, and men and women moved among the naked things of life. Almost he felt the thrill of it. It was something new to him, the touch of a magic finger upon his eyelids. Then the moment passed and he was himself again, matter-of-fact, prosaic.
“Let us dismiss the subject finally,” he said. “I must see your sister on business to-morrow, but it shall be for the last time.”
“I think,” she murmured, “that you will be wise.”