"I'm better. The first time we met I was fainting in the train. Before I knew you.… And I loved you and dreamed of your love for me. I used to hear your voice.… No one will ever look after me as you've done; no one will ever understand or love or make allowances for me——"
As he restored the flask to his pocket, Eric saw that the time was within a few minutes of midnight; in less than twenty-four hours he would be at Liverpool; in less than twenty-four minutes he would have lost the thing that was dearest to him in life.
"Barbara, you've seen Jack," he said. "He had his chance; he neglected it. There's the answer we've been waiting for all these weary months. I don't want to worry you when you're ill, but I can't charge my own conscience with the knowledge that I've left undone anything which will stop the present tragedy."
Though she opened her eyes slowly, there was now no trace of faintness or exhaustion.
"He never had a chance! Eric, if you'll think for one moment—in a crowded theatre, with people listening all round——"
"He could have written the moment he left Germany. He could have written or seen you any time since that night. On the night itself he could have asked you to let him come and see you. He didn't raise a finger! And you still hypnotize yourself with one excuse after another—How much longer are you going on?"
"I don't know, Eric." She covered her eyes for a moment and then rose to her feet. "I'm bound in honour, as I've told you a hundred times. When I know definitely——"
"Anything you know will have to be known to-night."
"But if you found a cable waiting for you in New York——"
"It would tell me what I know already—plus the fact that your vanity had been convinced in spite of itself."