In the meanwhile, her very coldness and aloofness stirred desire in the man, and she shrank as she saw a spark of passion kindling in his eyes. She recognized that there was a strain of grossness in him.
“No,” she responded, “that reason was not one which had any weight with me.”
Hawtrey’s face darkened. “Then,” he said grimly, “we’ll get on to the third. Wyllard’s credit is a precious thing to you; sooner than anything should cast a stain on it you would beg a favor from—me. You have set him up on a pedestal, and it would hurt you if he came down. Considering everything, it’s a remarkably curious situation.”
Agatha grew pale. Gregory was horribly right, for she had no doubt now that he had merely thrust upon her a somewhat distressing truth. It was to save Wyllard’s credit, and for that alone, that she had undertaken this most unpleasant task. She did not answer, and Hawtrey stood up.
“Wyllard has his faults, but there’s this in his favor—he keeps a promise,” he said. “One has a certain respect for a person who never goes back upon his word. Well, because I really think he would like it, I’ll keep those men.”
He paused for a moment, as if to let her grasp the drift of his words, and then turned to her with something that startled her in his voice and manner. “The question is—are you willing to emulate his example?”
Agatha shrank from the glow in his eyes. “Oh!” she broke out, “you cannot urge me now—after what you said.”
Hawtrey laughed harshly. “Well,” he said, “I’ll come for my answer very shortly. It seems that you and Wyllard attach a great deal of importance to a moral obligation—and I must remind you that the time agreed upon is almost up.”
Agatha sat very still for perhaps half a minute, while a sense of dismay took possession of her. There was no doubt that Gregory’s retort was fully warranted. She had insisted upon his carrying out an obligation which would cost him something, not because she took pleasure in seeing him do what was honorable, but to preserve the credit of another man. And now it was with intense repugnance that she recognized that there was apparently no escaping from the obligation she had incurred. Gregory’s attitude was perfectly natural and logical. She had promised to marry him, and he had saddled himself with a load of debt on her account, but the slight pity and tenderness that she had felt for him a few minutes earlier had utterly disappeared. Indeed, she felt that she almost hated him. His face had grown hard and almost brutal, and there was a look she shrank from in his eyes.
She rose with trembling limbs.