“Ha!”
“Yes: it was made in the brief time that elapsed between one promise and another, Jacob Gray.”
“Damnation! Why do you reiterate my name so constantly?”
“Because it angers you, Jacob Gray.”
“What if I were to kill you?” growled Gray.
“’Twould be another murder,” said Ada.
“Ada, I do not believe your exculpation. Why did you not escape, if you had the opportunity you speak of?”
“That I had a special reason for, which I will not tell you, Jacob Gray.”
“I do not wish to kill you.”
“That I know—you have some highly politic reason for preserving my life, else it had been sacrificed long since.”