'What! You don't believe even now that Simon is trying to rid himself of me? Valerie, speak! You too refused to believe me last night. What do you say now?'
'It may have been an accident,' replied Valerie with a tired movement.
'Absurd! But whatever you choose to say, I will not go back to the Castle! Révonde is perhaps safe——'
'My father is there, and you will be safe,' said Valerie in a tone of quiet certainty.
Isolde laughed scornfully. 'I don't know that; for after all Sagan is the most powerful man in the state!' she cried, with that perverse pride in her husband that his daring personality seemed to develop in all his dependents.
As Valerie made no reply, she harked back to her former subject. 'I was in danger last night, Jack, yet you would not come to my help. What excuse can a man offer for such a thing?' her voice and lips had grown tender in addressing him.
'The Duke, Madame.'
'That for the old Duke!' with a charming gesture of emptying both her little hands. 'What is he in comparison with me? Jack, you are but a poor lover after all!'
Rallywood began to see that some motive underlay Isolde's wild talk. The kind eyes with which he had been watching her changed.
'It is very true,' he said.