"What would you propose my doing?" returned Everest coldly, looking steadily at Merton, who flushed uncomfortably under the older man's gaze.
"Well, marry her, or promise to marry her when we all meet again in Europe, because I suppose we'll have to break up now. She's had such a shock she wants to get out of this, and I imagine you'll be tied here some time yet; but I'd like some understanding as to what you're going to do before we leave."
"I have already told your sister I can do nothing."
"But you know, it's all very well," remonstrated Merton hotly; "we're cousins, and you have some responsibility to her. She says you have been intimate, that you forced her——"
Everest rose from his chair with a sudden movement.
"You believed that—of me?" he asked, and Merton shrank under his eyes and tone.
"I don't know what to believe," he said sulkily.
"Will you repeat that accusation, Sybil, in my presence?" he asked, turning to her, but Sybil could not raise her eyes. She turned scarlet and looked down on the camp-table beside her.
"No, no," she faltered hurriedly, "I never said exactly that. Merton must have misunderstood."