"I'm coming to it, in time. I want to put to you this question. Will you have me, now, just as I am?"
"I will not; neither now or ever. How many more times am I to tell you that? Jack Haines, I do believe you're more than half insane."
"I may be. So'll you be before I'm through." Raising the big forefinger of his right hand, he wagged it at her solemnly. "There's some one come between us. Yes. That aristocrat."
"Aristocrat? What do you mean?"
"You know what I mean. Yes. The blood-stained Townsend. I knew he was stained with blood when first I saw him inside this room. But I did not know with whose blood he was stained, or I would have called him to his account right there and then. I did not know he was stained with the blood of my girl."
"Jack!"
The name came from her with an unconscious recurrence to the days which were gone.
"Yes. This is the man who has stolen what ought by rights to have been mine--the slayer of my girl."
"It's not true! You coward! You know you lie!"
"I do not lie."