"Did she not think of you when she followed you into the lion's cave? You would not be living at all now but for her. For you she is lying there in agony, maimed and mutilated, that you may be here safe, and you talk of not having to think of her!" His voice shook with anger.
"Rubbish! She didn't do it for me, she did it for you."
This was perfectly true, but it was the worst thing she could have said in her own cause. It came over Everest with heartrending force, the truth of it. Regina had done it for him. For him she was now lying crushed and broken, with all her glorious vitality laid by perhaps for ever.
"For me, well, then, yes, for me; and you want me to desert her in return, to consider you before her. You talk of my duty to you when she has all but given up her life for me! I have no duty whatever to anyone, except to her!"
"Nonsense, Everest; you know it's no use to talk like that. You must marry me now after what has occurred. You knew very well I considered myself engaged to you or I should never have allowed it."
"Allowed!"
Everest only uttered that one word. His face was very pale; his lips compressed into one hard line; his brows contracted. Vividly the whole scheme of the last two months stood before him; like a raised map in black and white relief. The coming of this girl and her brother to join their expedition, their insistence on being in the same camp with him, the daily, hourly companionship she had forced upon him, the persistent court, the final deliberately compromising situations, the seduction of his senses, the difficult overthrow of his reason.
As in Regina's case he had taken all blame to himself, and knew that he had abused her innocence and trusting love, so here his conscience absolutely acquitted him.
Just then the string of the door flap was pulled undone from the outside, the flap pushed aside and Merton came in. It seemed to Everest as if his coming had been arranged beforehand. Sybil rose and sat back in her chair. Everest did not move. Merton looked from one to the other.
"I can guess what you've been discussing," he said rather awkwardly. "Look here, Everest. Sybil has told me everything, and I really do think you ought to do something about it."