Regina fell on her knees before him and stretched out her arms.
"Everest! If you only knew what it means to me, to let you go into danger without me, you would not ask me. If anything should happen to you, I do so want to be with you. Won't you let me come?"
Her voice, in which her whole ardent nature, her great and overwhelming love for him revealed themselves in wonderful music of tone, made Everest's eyes suddenly swim and the image of her kneeling at his feet swayed mistily before him. He took both her arms and gently raised her.
"Dear one, listen. I know all you feel and I appreciate it so much, but there is no danger, or very little, for you to worry about. I know you want to share what there is and I want you with me, but in this case you can serve me so much better, if you will, by remaining here. After this we will break up the arrangement and you and I will go and hunt somewhere together alone, where we can do as we please."
"Why do you want me to stay?" she asked, looking up at him.
The red of angry savage annoyance surged all over his face.
"This girl Sybil has been making a scene and saying she cannot be left alone in camp, and of course, in a way, we are responsible for her. I can't order any of the others to stay with her, and it's hardly well to leave her by herself, she might do any foolish thing. She is simply in a state of nervous terror. So I am asking you to stay and look after her."
Regina paled with resentment. She did not know how utterly and entirely Everest revolted now from the girl whose physical beauty had for a time so ensnared and delighted his senses. She did not know how strongly he was drawn to herself and how completely the whole influence of the other had faded from his body and his mind. She had no clue as to the gradual weakening of this influence for some time past and the growing indifference on Everest's part which now had suddenly changed into contempt and revolt. He had been very silent about Sybil, after the manner of men, and had tried to show Regina by acts rather than in words that the matter, as far as he was concerned, was at an end. But as he stood to Sybil as host, and as she put out all her powers to keep him by her side, it was difficult for Regina to gain a just idea of the truth. Had Everest been of a more brutal and less refined type of sensualist he could have explained to Regina in a few short, outspoken sentences the fact that all and more than he wanted had been pressed upon him, and that he was now weary and annoyed with the girl and everything connected with her. But he revolted from any betrayal of a woman who, however selfishly, had loved him. He felt it a matter of honour to be absolutely silent about her. And in this way Regina had to be left to misunderstand and to suffer.
So now that he appealed to her to stay in camp it only seemed to her that she was appointed as guardian to the jewel he wished kept in safety, and her happiness, desire and pleasure was to be again sacrificed to this girl as it had been now for so long.
She was so bitterly angry; the rage and tumult of her jealous passion and indignation was such within her, that she could have turned upon Everest then and poured out a flood of burning reproach like a torrent of molten metal upon him.