"No!" she cried sharply. "No! I can be just to what you have done. What you are—that I have yet to learn, have I not?"
He smiled a little bitterly.
"I am an Aylmer. That is the lesson you have got by heart. I ask you to begin by unlearning."
She caught her breath a little quickly. Then she gave a decided little nod.
"Very well," she answered. "I—I will forget everything but the fact that you saved the boy once and that you—"
"Will do it again," said Aylmer. "That is a bargain?"
Again she hesitated over the form of words. A bargain? What was her side of the contract. If he fulfilled the purpose of which he spoke so confidently, what did it mean, from her point of view? She avoided the issue.
"You will find the child, you will bring him back?" she wondered.
"Of course!" He sat very erect in his chair. He smiled confidently. "In a fight between a rogue and honest men, the honest men win ultimately, and always. The green bay tree of the unrighteous grows with luxuriance but withers in time inevitably. I shall follow him till I win."
"And your career?" she asked incredulously. "Your profession?"