"How selfish of me, when he—Poor Mr. Blake! What can be done? We must do something—at once!"
"If anything can be done!" said Lord James in a hopeless tone. "You say he took it deliberately?"
"Yes. Can't you see? Mamma had stuffed him with a lot of rot about gratitude—about Vievie sacrificing herself to him on account of gratitude. It's easy enough to guess mamma's little game. Oh! it's simply terrible! Of course he believed it, and of course he planned at once to go away—that's the kind of man he is! He planned to go away—run off—so that Vievie couldn't sacrifice herself."
"My word!"
"And just then Laffie Ashton came back with the wine. I believe he did it a-purpose—that he wanted to get Mr. Blake intoxicated!"
"The unmitigated cad! Yet why should he? It seems impossible that any man—"
"How should I know? He's vicious enough to do anything. But what does that matter? It's Mr. Blake. Can't you see why he took it? He was getting himself out of the way. I didn't understand then what he said—about the bad place being nearer than Alaska—but now I do. What he was determined to do was to get himself out of Vievie's way for good. The quickest that he could do it was to start drinking—go on a spree."
"Gad!"
"And now you stand here like a dummy, when there's a way to save him."
"Yes, yes! I'll go after him!" He started alertly toward the door.
She sprang before him, "No! What good would that do? You know he's set on saving Vievie. He'll not listen to you."