But again the sneering voice of Barra cut the embarrassing silence.
"It was, then, I doubt not, in the company of this lady, whose hand you hold, that you drugged the jailer of Amersfort, broke the prison, and escaped. It was this lady who, being well acquainted with the purlieus of that temple of harlotry, the Hostel of the Coronation, stole three horses from Sheffell, the landlord, and rode with you and your boon companion Scarlett—a man false to as many services as he has sworn allegiance to—out to the sand-dunes of Lis, where you and she abode till you found a passage to England. In all this you had, doubtless, the companionship and assistance of no other woman than this lady, whom with such noble and honorable condescension you now desire to marry. She it was (declare it briefly, true swain) who lied for you, stole for you, fought for you, abode with you, died for you—as the catch has it, 'all for love and nothing for reward.'"
At the close of Barra's speech Kate turned to Wat.
"Tell them," she said, "that there was no such woman with you."
[CHAPTER XLI]
LOVE THAT THINKETH NO EVIL
Wat stood silent, his face turning slowly from red to ashen white. What an arrant fool he had been, not to tell her all in those sweet hours on the island of Fiara—a score of Little Maries had mattered nothing to her then. Then everything would have been plain and easy. His conscience was indeed perfectly clear. But, partly because with the willing forgetfulness of an ardent lover he had forgotten, and partly because he had shrunk from marring with the name of another those precious hours of blissful communion of which he had hitherto enjoyed so few, he had neglected to tell Kate the tale. He saw his mistake now.
"Tell them, Wat," urged Kate, confidently, "tell them all."
"Aye, tell them all," repeated Barra, grimly, between his teeth, "tell them all your late love did for you, beginning with the favors of which your cousin Will and I were witnesses in the gilded room of the Hostel of the Coronation. Begin at the bottom—with the lady's shoe and the toast you drank out of that most worthy cup!"