Part 104 (2/2)
Lady Lundie yielded, and returned to her place. They all waited in silence for the opening of the doors.
Sir Patrick Lundie and Anne Silvester were alone in the room.
He took from the breast-pocket of his coat the sheet of note-paper which contained Anne's letter, and Geoffrey's reply. His hand trembled as he held it; his voice faltered as he spoke.
”I have done all that can be done,” he said. ”I have left nothing untried, to prevent the necessity of producing this.”
”I feel your kindness gratefully, Sir Patrick. You must produce it now.”
The woman's calmness presented a strange and touching contrast to the man's emotion. There was no shrinking in her face, there was no unsteadiness in her voice as she answered him. He took her hand. Twice he attempted to speak; and twice his own agitation overpowered him. He offered the letter to her in silence.
In silence, on her side, she put the letter away from her, wondering what he meant.
”Take it back,” he said. ”I can't produce it! I daren't produce it!
After what my own eyes have seen, after what my own ears have heard, in the next room--as G.o.d is my witness, I daren't ask you to declare yourself Geoffrey Delamayn's wife!”
She answered him in one word.
”Blanche!”
He shook his head impatiently. ”Not even in Blanche's interests! Not even for Blanche's sake! If there is any risk, it is a risk I am ready to run. I hold to my own opinion. I believe my own view to be right. Let it come to an appeal to the law! I will fight the case, and win it.”
”Are you _sure_ of winning it, Sir Patrick?”
Instead of replying, he pressed the letter on her. ”Destroy it,” he whispered. ”And rely on my silence.”
She took the letter from him.
”Destroy it,” he repeated. ”They may open the doors. They may come in at any moment, and see it in your hand.”
”I have something to ask you, Sir Patrick, before I destroy it. Blanche refuses to go back to her husband, unless she returns with the certain a.s.surance of being really his wife. If I produce this letter, she may go back to him to-day. If I declare myself Geoffrey Delamayn's wife, I clear Arnold Brinkworth, at once and forever of all suspicion of being married to me. Can you as certainly and effectually clear him in any other way? Answer me that, as a man of honor speaking to a woman who implicitly trusts him!”
She looked him full in the face. His eyes dropped before hers--he made no reply.
”I am answered,” she said.
With those words, she pa.s.sed him, and laid her hand on the door.
He checked her. The tears rose in his eyes as he drew her gently back into the room.
”Why should we wait?” she asked.
”Wait,” he answered, ”as a favor to _me._”
She seated herself calmly in the nearest chair, and rested her head on her hand, thinking.
He bent over her, and roused her, impatiently, almost angrily. The steady resolution in her face was terrible to him, when he thought of the man in the next room.
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