I had the answer now. I walked back to Vere and took my seat again.
"Both of us, or neither," I told him. "If you can help me make it both by any ingenuity, I shall be mighty glad. It's a pleasant world! But we will not talk any more of my running for New York like a kicked pup. The question is, will you and Phillida take care of the lady who calls herself Desire Michell, if tomorrow morning finds her free, but alone and friendless?"
"As long as we live, Mr. Locke," he answered. "But I guess there isn't any disgrace in your going to New York, running or not, if you take her with you. And that is what ought to have been done long ago."
"Vere?"
He nodded.
"You've got me! Just pick the lady up, carry her out of that room, and have a show-down. Put her in your car and take her to town."
"I gave her my word not——"
"People can't stand bowing to each other when the ship's afire. If she is worth dying for, she doesn't want you to die for her."
The simplicity of it! And, leaping the breach of faith, the temptation!