“In certain circumstances—yes. But that’s different. Oh, you must see it’s different! Besides, Tony would accept money from me, even though my husband had given it to me. But he’d be too proud to take it from Eliot—or from any one else.”
“Too proud! It seems to me Tony’s precious little to be proud about!”
“The more reason why he should keep any pride he has remaining. Don’t be hard on him, Cara. Remember he’s young, and that the instinct to gamble is in his very blood. This has been a lesson to him—a frightful lesson. I know—if he once gets clear of this—he’ll run straight for the future.”
“Then you must let me go to the yacht,” insisted Cara with finality.
“No” The reply came with a definiteness there was no mistaking. “I’ve given my word to Brett that I’d come,”
“You know what Eliot will think if he hears of it? He’ll probably—almost certainly—distrust you utterly, and it will ruin both your lives.”
“I must risk that,” said Ann quietly. “Tony’s got to be saved somehow, and it’s up to me to do it. He was ‘left’ to me, you know. Virginia trusted me. And I can’t let her down.”
There was something curiously strong and steadfast in her face as she spoke—something against which Cara realised that it was futile to strive any further. Reluctantly she desisted, but it was with a heavy heart that she at last quitted the Cottage, leaving Ann firm in her resolve to save Tony, no matter at what cost.
Ann woke early next morning, feeling rather as though it were to be her last day on earth. She thought she could appreciate to some extent the sensations of a man condemned to be executed the following dawn. To-day she was tremendously alive, with happiness cupped betwixt her hands, while the future of rose and gold beckoned her onward. To-morrow, that whole future might be wrenched from her, leaving her like one dead, with nothing to live for, nothing to hope.
When Eliot paid his usual daily visit she went tremulously to meet him. This might be the last time he would ever look at her with the eyes of love—the last time they would ever talk together as lovers. For her, his kisses held all the poignant ecstasy and pain of kisses that may be the last on earth.