Part 19 (1/2)
She made a quick, restless movement.
”Suspect you!” she cried. ”You!”
”Yes,” he said slowly. ”That day in the town, and on the pier, at the Tent Club meeting, even--was not that in your mind?”
His voice was not reproachful, merely inquiring.
She flushed.
”The first time I suspected every one,” she answered. ”The second time I discovered, suddenly and unexpectedly, your name.”
He nodded.
”And now?” he questioned. ”And now?”
”Now?” she repeated. ”Have you not given me my proofs?”
”Have I?” His voice was eager. ”I can reckon that barrier down then? The taint of the name is cleared away? I start with no handicap of prejudice?”
Again the form of words half bewildered, half exasperated her. Start?
Start whither, in what race, to what goal? And were there barriers to be won, too? Between him and--what?
Her instinct gave her the answer as it had done the day before. But she shrank from the acknowledgment, even to herself. The thought was too monstrous. An Aylmer and--and that! The blood rushed to her forehead on the tide of her resentment. And then as suddenly ebbed. After all, was it not the name alone which sent that surging throb of repulsion through her veins? Supposing she had met this man, in ignorance. She started again. Had she not so met him, at first? She cudgelled her brains in reflection. How did she regard him that morning at the Tent Club, before she knew? Had he not seemed a personable, even a gallant and courageous soldier, worthy of a woman's regard? She looked at him suddenly, curiously, with a sort of speculation in her eyes.
And he met the glance quietly, watchfully, and--so she told herself with a recurrent thrill of exasperation--relentlessly as well. It was as if he was forcing her to be won from prejudice to impartiality. As if he willed her into just thinking against herself. A tiny spasm of fear pulsed through her. In a clash of purpose who would win, she or this man?
She made him a gesture which had about it the sense of appeal.
”One cannot dismiss prejudices; one can fight them,” she faltered.
”Ah!”
He sighed, not with weariness, but with a sort of patience, with restraint. ”I think perhaps women do not accept mere justice as a plea so easily as men,” he debated. ”So I must not presume on that footing. I have still to win my way from ... dislike?”
”No!” she cried sharply. ”No! I can be just to what you have done. What you are--that I have yet to learn, have I not?”
He smiled a little bitterly.
”I am an Aylmer. That is the lesson you have got by heart. I ask you to begin by unlearning.”
She caught her breath a little quickly. Then she gave a decided little nod.
”Very well,” she answered. ”I--I will forget everything but the fact that you saved the boy once and that you--”
”Will do it again,” said Aylmer. ”That is a bargain?”
Again she hesitated over the form of words. A bargain? What was her side of the contract. If he fulfilled the purpose of which he spoke so confidently, what did it mean, from her point of view? She avoided the issue.
”You will find the child, you will bring him back?” she wondered.