“I tell you this,” he cried, determinedly: “If you think I am going off to Europe and leave you here with him you are very much mistaken. That much is settled, anyhow.”
She rose to her feet.
“Do you mean that you don’t trust me enough to—to leave me with anybody?” she demanded.
“I mean that I won’t leave you with him. I should say not! With him—and with that uncle of yours standing behind him, helping him play his cards and—and.... Oh, Esther, think a little bit! Can’t you see that getting this Covell here is just a part of your uncle’s whole scheme? Get me out of the way, send me across the water, and—well, then maybe, with this chap around to help you forget, you will forget. And everything will be all serene for Foster Townsend. Not much! I wasn’t going before—I told you so—and if I wouldn’t then I certainly shan’t now. I’m not an absolute fool. Why—”
She broke in upon the tirade. “Wait!” she ordered. “Wait before you say anything more. Does this mean that when you came here to-night you intended telling me that you weren’t going to do what I had asked; that you weren’t going abroad unless I did?”
“Until you did—yes. Oh, Esther,” with a sudden outburst of tenderness, “don’t look like that and don’t speak like that—to me. How could I go? If you knew how hard I had tried to make myself see that I ought to do what you asked! But I couldn’t! I know I shouldn’t go. I came to beg you not to insist on it. And I haven’t seen you for so long, two whole weeks! I have looked forward to to-night— Oh, dearest, please! Let’s not quarrel again. Let’s—”
He came toward her. She stepped back.
“Don’t!” she cried. “Don’t! I— Oh, I can hardly believe all this! It doesn’t seem possible that it is you who have said such things. The last time you were here, when you said what you did about Uncle Foster I—well, after you had gone I tried to find excuses for you. I knew you were disappointed and—well, I was sure you didn’t mean what you said and would tell me so when we met again. And now, instead of that, you say the same things—or worse. So you did mean them, after all.”
“Well—well—oh, hang it all! Esther, I said—I said what I believed—yes. And I believe it now.”
“Then you believe my uncle is a scamp and a hypocrite and a liar—and I don’t know what beside. You believe that!”