Derek sat down again on the shiny sofa and buried his head in his hands.
“I can't get away from him. He's been with me all day. I see him all the time.”
That the boy was really haunted was only too apparent. How to attack this mania? If one could make him feel something else! And Felix said:
“Look here, Derek! Before you've any right to Nedda you've got to find ballast. That's a matter of honour, if you like.”
Derek flung up his head as if to escape a blow. Seeing that he had riveted him, Felix pressed on, with some sternness:
“A man can't serve two passions. You must give up this championing the weak and lighting flames you can't control. See what it leads to! You've got to grow and become a man. Until then I don't trust my daughter to you.”
The boy's lips quivered; a flush darkened his face, ebbed, and left him paler than ever.
Felix felt as if he had hit that face. Still, anything was better than to leave him under this gruesome obsession! Then, to his consternation, Derek stood up and said:
“If I go and see his body at the prison, perhaps he'll leave me alone a little!”
Catching at that, as he would have caught at anything, Felix said: