“You expect me to speak to-night, when my soul is tortured? Have you no pity, man? Do you realize what the carrying out of this vow means to me? I have but to break it and all my difficulties vanish. Drake, I am beginning to think I must give in,” he wound up wearily.
The passion had vanished and a great anguish of mind had taken its place, for he had been thinking, and it seemed as though he had signed the death warrant of his happiness by refusing his wife’s request. Even the strongest men have moments of weakness and Gaunt lost grip of his purpose, revealing himself as he had never before done to human being.
“You, Drake, are a cold-blooded saint—a man untouched by thought of woman and you cannot imagine the awful longing which is in me. I worship my wife, and every fibre of my being longs for her. Now I must forego my desire, and——By Heaven! I can’t do it. To hell with the Congo, for I’ve done with its suffering niggers,” he cried recklessly.
Drake’s face was white and drawn, his lips moved but no words could be heard during the breathless silence that followed.
“I’m not an archangel and I can’t rise to your heights. It is my nature to sink and——What am I saying?” Gaunt broke off abruptly, and wildly brushed his hand across his forehead.
Edward Drake’s breath came quickly but still he would not speak and, approaching Gaunt, affectionately placed his hand on his shoulder.
“I, too, love as you do, and I understand. Gaunt, you are my friend, and I am proud of it. I believe in you, and know that you do not mean the words that you have spoken. During the last few days I have been filled with admiration for the things you have done. You have shown courage of a high order. You made a vow and you have carried it out in the spirit and the letter. Gaunt, you will not weaken, I implore you. Remember the good that you have already done. You are rousing England from its lethargy, and you only have to continue to win the battle. Think of it, Gaunt. You can save the natives from torture and make them free men. Could mortal man have a nobler task?”
He spoke with deep feeling, but his words were unheeded.
“Can you blame me if I give way? On the one hand is the love of my wife and on the other a bitter fight that may lose me every friend that I possess. In a few days the country may ring with the things that I have done, and my wife may be ashamed at the mention of my name. You deliberately ask me to make this sacrifice, and for what? For a promise made in a moment of dire distress, when I scarcely knew what I was saying,” Gaunt cried vehemently.
“For a promise made to God,” Drake said in a low voice.