There we were, the three of us: Berna faint with fear, ghastly, pitiful; I calm, yet calm with a strange, unnatural calmness, and Garry—he surprised me. He had seated himself, and with the greatest sang-froid he was lighting a cigarette.
A long tense silence. At last I broke it.
"What have you got to say for yourself, Garry?" I asked.
It was wonderful how calm he was.
"Looks pretty bad, doesn't it, brother?" he said gravely.
"Yes, it couldn't look worse."
"Looks as if I was a pretty base, despicable specimen of a man, doesn't it?"
"Yes, about as base as a man could be."
"That's so." He rose and turned up the light of a large reading-lamp, then coming to me he looked me square in the face. Abruptly his casual manner dropped. He grew sharp, forceful; his voice rang clear.
"Listen to me."