"Believe in my innocence!"
She shook her head.
"I couldn't do that," she answered. "But if I had been that kind of—of fool, what then?"
He shrugged his shoulders and said nothing. Standing there in the firelight, Lady Betty looked unquestionably beautiful, and yet Calamity felt a great weariness of her and of this scene. His mind took a leap through time and space, and he saw himself once more upon the deck of the Hawk, facing, not this delicately nurtured woman, but a girl with fearless eyes and wind-swept hair; a girl who would have believed in him against the world.
Lady Betty crossed to him.
"You are unjust to me," she said.
"You were unjust to me," he replied.
She gave a weary little sigh. It seemed hopeless to try and make him see her point of view.
"Suppose I told you that I could now prove my innocence," he said, turning on her abruptly, "how would you feel about the past?"
"It's—it's impossible."