“Have I ever been in love, you would ask! What do you take me for, pray? Am I such a blind, cold-hearted clod that I could go through the world for forty-five years and keep my heart untouched? Of course I have loved. I do love! It was once and for ever with me—”
“But you are not—”
“Married? No! She died long ago; but even if she had lived she was not for me. She would have been the wife of another man; a good fellow; I think she would have been happy. As it is, we remember her together. She was a bright, sunshiny creature who carried happiness with her wherever she went... To have known her is the comfort of our lives—not the grief. We have lived through the deep waters, and can now rejoice in her gain... Do you know there is something about yourself which has reminded me of her several times! That is one reason why I like being with you, and am interested in your life. I should like you to think of me as a friend, and come to me for help if you were ever in need of anything that I could give.”
The colour rushed into Margot’s cheeks, and her heart beat with suffocating quickness. Here was the opportunity for which she had longed, offered to her without any preliminary effort or contriving on her own part! The place, the time, the person were all in readiness, waiting for her convenience. If through cowardice or wavering she allowed the moment to pass, she could never again hope for another such opening. Already the Chieftain was watching her with surprise and curiosity, the softness of the last few minutes giving place to the usual alert good-humour.
“Hey? Well! What is it? What’s the trouble? Out with it! Anything I can do?”
“Mr Elgood,” said Margot faintly, “you are very good, very kind; I am most grateful to you. I hope you will help me, but first there is something I must say... I—I have been deceiving you from the beginning!”
“What’s that?” The Chieftain sat up suddenly and stared at her beneath frowning brows. “Deceiving me? You? I don’t believe a word of it! What is there to deceive me about, pray? You are not masquerading under a false name, I suppose? Not married, for instance, and passing yourself off as single for some silly school-girl freak?”
“Oh no! Oh no! Everything that I have told you about myself is true, absolutely true.”
“I knew it. You are not the sort that could act a lie. What’s all the fuss about, then?”
“What I have told you is true, but—but—I have not told you all!”