Dan lifted his eyes. "And what if I refuse?" he said in a resolute way.
"Then take the consequences."
"You mean the consequences of that—that—that forgery?"
At this Ewan realized the thought in Dan's mind, and perceived that Dan conceived him capable of playing upon his fears by holding over his head the penalty of an offense which he had already taken upon himself. "God in heaven!" he thought, "and this is the pitiful creature whom I have all these years taken to my heart."
"Is that what your loyalty comes to?" said Dan, and his lip curled.
"Loyalty!" cried Ewan, in white wrath. "Loyalty, and you talk to me of loyalty—you who have outraged the honor of my sister—"
"Mona!"
"I have said it at last, though the word blisters my tongue. Go away from the island forever, and let me never see your face again."
Dan rose to his feet with rigid limbs. He looked about him for a moment in a dazed silence, and put his hand to his forehead as if he had lost himself.
"Do you believe that?" he said, in a slow whisper.