“That you are desperately and hopelessly in love with John Graham yourself, and that you haven’t pride and character enough to hold up your head before his indifference, and his patronising contempt. I have won him, and you come with cheap insults for the woman he loves.”
Susie’s eyes grew dim.
“Your accusation is infamously false,” she cried with choking emotion.
“You deny that you love him?” Stella flashed.
“I glory in it—if you will know!” Susie cried in dreamy tenderness. “I’ve always loved him with a girl’s blind worship of the hero of her dreams. And I shall cherish every gentle word that he has ever spoken to me. The impulse which brought me here wasn’t the vulgar desire to insult the woman he loves. I came to save his life.”
Stella sprang to her feet, her face scarlet, her breath coming in quick gasps of anger.
“What do you mean?”
“I’ll tell you if you answer my questions. Do you dare tell me that you love him?”
Stella drew herself up proudly.
“You have no right to ask that question. But I answer it. I do love him and I have told him.”