Levin said:
"I don't know that. . . . If you'll forgive me . . . Major Perowne came to see me, reaching me half an hour after General O'Hara. He was very . . . extremely nervous and concerned. I am bound to say . . . for Mrs. Tietjens. . . . And also very concerned to spare yourself! . . . It appears that he had shouted out just anything. . . . As it might be 'Thieves!' or 'Fire!' . . . But when General O'Hara came out he told him, being out of himself, that he had been invited to your wife's room, and that . . . Oh, excuse me. . . . I'm under great obligations to you . . . the very greatest . . . that you had attempted to blackmail him!"
Tietjens said:
"Well! . . ."
"You understand," Levin said, and he was pleading, "that is what he said to General O'Hara in the corridor. He even confessed it was madness. . . . He did not maintain the accusation to me. . . ."
Tietjens said:
"Not that Mrs. Tietjens had given him leave? . . ."
Levin said with tears in his eyes:
"I'll not go on with this. . . . I will rather resign my commission than go on tormenting you. . . ."
"You can't resign your commission," Tietjens said.