“Absolutely.”
The doctor closed the book.
“You knew he loved Diane Herford?”
“I had supposed so; he never told me.”
“Well, he did; and it’s fair to assume that she cared for him. He was the kind of a man a woman would care for. But you left him there and came back to ask her to marry you?”
Faunce flushed, and then broke out resentfully:
“I love her!”
The old man leaned back in his chair with a strange grimace, as if a nauseous draft had been offered to him and he had refused to taste it. Faunce, turning at the moment, saw the doctor’s expression, and it kindled his anger again.
“I told you that I love her, that I wouldn’t give her up if Overton came back from the dead!”
“You knew he couldn’t come back,” retorted the doctor. “You saw to that!”