"Well, neither, quite. I used to tell her that I loved her and that I never wanted her to leave me and that I hoped she never would."
"But not that you wanted to marry her?"
"No, sir. Not that I wanted to marry her."
"Well, well, all right!—and she—what did she say?"
"That she never would leave me," replied Clyde, heavily and fearsomely, thinking, as he did so, of Roberta's last cries and her eyes bent on him. And he took from his pocket a handkerchief and began to wipe his moist, cold face and hands.
("Well staged!" murmured Mason, softly and cynically. "Pretty shrewd—pretty shrewd!" commented Redmond, lightly.)
"But, tell me," went on Jephson, softly and coldly, "feeling as you did about Miss Alden, how was it that upon meeting this Miss X, you could change so quickly? Are you so fickle that you don't know your own mind from day to day?"
"Well, I didn't think so up to that time—no, sir!"
"Had you ever had a strong and binding love affair at any time in your life before you met Miss Alden?"
"No, sir."