"Is this a joke?" asked Vivian harshly.
"Oh no, it's true, it's perfectly true. I'm sorry, very sorry, to hear you're fond of her; but I loved her before I heard it—you mustn't forget that. It oughtn't to make bad blood between us, whatever happens. I've told you as soon as I could; I've been quite open with you."
"I—I'm hanged if I'm quite sure now what you're driving at," said Vivian after another pause. "You're 'sorry'—'whatever happens'?... What is it you're doing—warning me? Do you mean——You don't mean to say you think she'll marry you?"
"I hope and pray she will. If she cares more for you, of course she won't."
"What?" He forced a laugh. "Are you out of your mind? Why, the thing's preposterous! It's an insult to her to imagine it.... Look here, I don't want a row with you. You must see very well that it's no good. We don't make ourselves, it's not your fault that you're not the same as other fellows, it's your misfortune—but you can't expect a decent girl to marry a coloured man; it's against nature."
"Our mother did," said David.
"I've had quite enough about that!... Besides, we all know she was wretched. And I've told you Hilda belongs to me. Don't come interfering; it has gone too far already, with the correspondence and the likeness. I can't make it out."
"She doesn't belong to you; if she belonged to you, I'd say nothing. She belongs to neither of us—she can choose the one she likes best. Well, let her choose! If my love is preposterous, if it's an insult to her, why are you frightened for me to go and plead?"
"Frightened?" Vivian blazed; "do you think I'm jealous of you? You know better. You're frightened yourself—you said so. When you went to her, it was like a coward; by your own showing, you've hung about her under a false name. I suppose that was 'open,' was it? You've been trying to get round her by your poetry, haven't you? trying to sneak her fancy before she knew what you were like! Go and plead—and be damned to you—and hear what she'll say, now she knows what you are!"
He waited for an answer, affected another laugh, and then turned to the table and picked up his hat. David drew close to him, shaking.