"The poker? Not such a fool! He would be sanguine who hoped to explain a poker."
He had been sitting back in his chair; now, leaning forward, he rested his arms on the table.
"Suppose I had another of those things which were in the silver box. If I gave it to you would you take it?"
"No."
Her face had become all at once so pale that her very lips seemed white.
"I should have to go through the form of making you."
"You would have to do to me what you did to your uncle."
"And if I did, what then?--what then?"
If he expected an answer it did not come. She stood confronting him, so immobile that she scarcely seemed to breathe. The smile was on his face which had seemed the night before to give it such unpleasant significance, as if unholy thoughts were chasing each other through his mind.
"I'll be frank with you."