“I know.”
“I looked at them with new eyes, and in their eyes I saw you, always you; and then I said to myself could I bear that you should become a criminal?”
“You said that?”
The fingers of Sergius closed over the china figure, and did not unclose.
“Yes. I almost resolved then to go to Vernon at once and to tell him what I suspected—what I really knew.”
The clock struck eleven. Anthony heard it; Sergius did not hear it.
“Then I went to sit with that wretched woman. Already I had resolved, as I believed, on the course to take. I had no thought for Vernon yet, only for you. It seemed to me that I did not care in the least to save him from death. I only cared to save you—my friend—from murder. But when the woman died I felt differently. My resolve was strengthened, my desire was just doubled. I had to save not only you, but also him. He was not ready to die.”
Anthony trembled with a passion of emotion. Sergius remained always perfectly calm, the china figure prisoned in his hand.
“So—so I went to him, Sergius.”