‘My dear Atherton, if my health is really failing me, I shall resign everything,—everything!’
He repeated his own word with a little movement of his hands which was pathetic.
‘Understand me, Lessingham. What else you do is no affair of mine. I am concerned only with Miss Lindon. You must give me your definite promise, before you leave this room, to terminate your engagement with her before to-night.’
His back was towards me.
‘There will come a time when your conscience will prick you because of your treatment of me; when you will realise that I am the most unfortunate of men.’
‘I realise that now. It is because I realise it that I am so desirous that the shadow of your evil fortune shall not fall upon an innocent girl.’
He turned.
‘Atherton, what is your actual position with reference to Marjorie Lindon?’
‘She regards me as a brother.’
‘And do you regard her as a sister? Are your sentiments towards her purely fraternal?’