"Not ridiculously, I hope!"
"I don't know what you mean.... He cared more than I have believed possible; I saw him in New York on his way here and, Jim, he must have known then, for he looked like death—"
"You mean he was in love with that Cardross girl?"
"Oh, yes, yes!... I do not understand the affair; but I tell you, Jim, the strangest part was that the girl loved him! If ever a woman was in love with a man, Shiela Cardross was in love with Garry! I tell you I know it; I am not guessing, not hazarding an opinion; I know it.... And she married Louis Malcourt!... And, Jim, I have been so frightened—so terrified—for Garry—so afraid that he might not care to fight—"
Wayward leaned there heavily and in silence. He was going to say that men do not do such things for women any longer, but he thought of the awful battle not yet ended which he had endured for the sake of the woman beside him; and he said nothing; because he knew that, without hope of her to help him, the battle had long since gone against him. But Garry had nothing to fight for, if what Constance said was true. And within him his latent distrust and contempt for Malcourt blazed up, tightening the stern lines of his sun-burnt visage.
"Portlaw says that Louis is coming to-night, and that young Mrs. Malcourt is with him," he observed.
"I know it.... I was wondering if there was any way we could use her—make use of her—"
"To stir up Garry to fight?"
"Y-yes—something like that—I am vague about it myself—if it could be done without anybody suspecting the—O Jim!—I don't know; I am only a half-crazed woman willing to do anything for my boy—"
"Certainly. If there's anything that might benefit Garry you need not hesitate on account of that little beast Malcourt—"