"'Good reason—good reason'? You know so much that you must know more. And you must tell me more."
"I'll tell you this. We are at cross purposes. I let you talk because—because it amused me in a strange sort of painful way. But the truth——"
He hesitated, and the full, fatal significance of the next few words impressed itself vividly upon his soul. There was no blinking it. The fact stared pitiless. He stood at the cross roads of fortune, and with his next word to Cecil Stark, his own path would be chosen, his own desire renounced, for ever.
The American saw that great emotions fought in this man's mind, and waited for him to speak.
"The truth is that Miss Malherb is a free woman—so far as love is concerned."
"She told me when I——" began Stark; then he looked guilty and held his peace.
But Lee understood.
"When you asked her to marry you? I know. She could not say otherwise then. Bide bold and patient; the time will come when she may answer differently."
The other was terribly moved. A great expiration burst from him, half an oath of astonishment, half a hallelujah.
"In God's name what are you that dare to speak these great things?" he asked under his breath, as though he apostrophised a sexless spirit.