'You won't touch her again,' he muttered. 'Damn you, not ever again!'
She pulled the clothes on to the bed and tucked them in, then fetched another blanket from her tent and spread it over him, that he might sweat out the fever. He had enough to endure without that.
She bathed her arm and sat down, her hesitation gone. The manner of Archie's dreaming proved that her fears were not imaginary. It lay with her that dreams did not pass into deeds.
Nor could she leave Archie to fight his fever alone; but until she had made clear her position between the two men, it was not possible for her to take up her duty by her husband's sick-bed. As another man's acting mistress she had no right there. The sight of her might even make him worse.
She would not feel clean till she had humbled herself before Archie, told him she renounced Dick, and offered to fulfil the contract she had vowed and broken. Archie might well refuse the spoiled remnants of her loyalty, but she would at least have done the little she could to repair the irreparable wrong. And Dick ... she did not dare to think of Dick. Before she spoke to Archie she must tell Dick. He had a right to hear from her lips. She had to tell him that their love must end ... was ended. She would have to launch upon a hopeless explanation of motives she barely understood and reasons which he would refuse. Every shred of reticence would be torn to tatters. Agonised but inflexible, she would have to listen to his reproaches, arguments, prayers.
Could she trust her will under that fire? Would she not be wiser to tell Archie before she told Dick? Once she had offered to her husband the remainder of her burnt-out life, honour would keep her weak flesh from yielding to her lover's entreaties.
Nor was that all. Dick jilted, his love and vanity ableed, would be in the mood to provoke Archie, not yet aware of his wife's renunciation, to fatal action; and the tragedy she had given her love to avert would be consummated in a death grapple between the two men she had loved and left.
Before she fell asleep again, her mind was made up that first Archie must hear she had given up Dick for ever. Then Dick must be told."