He paused blankly, but he was in the trap, and there was no escape now.
“And I came in at the other,” continued Muriel, finishing his sentence.
He gazed at her, pale, with opaquest eyes; she at him, with clear eyes aglow, and a solemn look upon her countenance. Wentworth and Emily stared at both of them, not comprehending the point at all.
“And now, Fernando,” said Muriel, calmly, “the question for you to answer is—How could you think you saw me with Wentworth, when you saw me come in from the conservatory, holding out the bunch of flowers to you?”
A posing question! There was a long pause, in which Witherlee kept his rigid face fixed upon her. Then, unable to bear her clear gaze, he meanly trembled, and his head fell.
“Ah!” said Wentworth, in a low voice, “catch the first! A decided catch. Fernando, my boy, we have you in a pure and simple lie.”
At this terrible speech, Witherlee lifted his livid and rigid face with a forlorn attempt at dignity, but he could not sustain it. His glittering and unsteady eyes flickered away from the open and gallant countenance of Wentworth; from Emily, gazing at him with lustrous scorn; from Muriel, looking at him with solemn pity; from Harrington, sitting with his head bowed in his hand, and fell. He could not bear to look at them. Mischief-makers, like other criminals, usually mix folly with their crime, and in the commission of their wickedness, commonly leave the clue to its discovery. Thus had Witherlee done. And now he was found out. To tattle and lie and slander was nothing to him; but to be discovered, was death.
“Fernando,” said Emily, with indignant composure, “this wicked falsehood you have told makes it impossible to believe a word you have said. I do not now credit a single syllable of your explanation—not one.”
At the sound of her voice, Witherlee seemed to recover a little self-possession, for he turned quickly to her, though his unsteady eyes did not rest upon her face.
“You have no right to say that,” he replied in a querulous and tremulous voice, “no right whatever. I am willing to own my fault, but it is not fair to argue from one fault to another. I have told you the truth, and you saw its reasonableness, and acquitted me of blame. It is not fair to take it back, not at all fair.”