"Eden, if you will listen a moment——"
"I have listened too long. Where is my father? Why is it you pursue me here? Are you not satisfied with your work? You meet a girl who only wishes to trust, and before her eyes you unroll a panorama of deceit. Oh! you chose her well——"
"It cannot be that you believe that man, Eden——"
"The man I believed was you. What matters the testimony of others when I find myself deceived——"
"Eden, you have deceived yourself. Last night I told you there were things I had not wished to tell, not from lack of confidence, but because——"
"Because you knew that did I hear them I would go."
"No, not that; but because I did not wish to cause you pain."
"Yes, protest. My father said you would. But the protest comes too late. Besides, I do not care to listen."
And thereat she made a movement as though to leave the room. But this Usselex prevented. He planted himself very firmly before her. His attitude was arrestive as an obelisk and uncircuitable as a labyrinth. Attention was his to command, and he claimed it with a gesture.
"You shall not go," he said; "you shall hear me."