Part 38 (1/2)

”I know now that you are a gentleman,” she said simply. ”I realize, too, that Landon is--is monstrous, wickedness incarnate, beyond the reach of human feeling, completely vile. I think,” she hesitated, ”I think he must have concentrated within himself every evil influence that has fallen upon his family, to leave you--” again she faltered, as if she struggled with a compelling power, not as if a word or phrase escaped her--”to leave you--_stainless_,” she sighed with an inflection that seemed to tell of something reluctant in the effort.

For a moment he was silent. Then the color flamed to his face; the light of incredulity woke in his eyes.

”Then I start now with every handicap cleared away?” he asked quickly.

”You see me--as other men?”

She turned and looked at him. She smiled a little wearily.

”No,” she said quietly. ”Not as other men.”

He drew a deep breath.

”Claire,” he said very quietly, ”a month ago I came first into your life. Fate brought me to you, to earn, and then to resent, your unexplained hatred. When I understood it, I swore to myself that I would make you--just. That, then, is a task accomplished.”

Was this sudden intimate use of her Christian name unconscious or was it premeditated? She made no comment; she only bowed her a.s.sent.

”That was no personal decision,” went on Aylmer. ”I did it as a duty--to all who bore my name. The personal factor came afterwards, but so soon afterwards that I can scarcely tell you when the one merged in the other. I loved you; did you understand that?”

And now it was her turn to flush and wince. But was it wincing? The pulse which throbbed through her--was it truly resentment? A sense of sudden bewilderment came over her--a bewilderment which sought refuge, at first, in silence.

”You--you almost threatened me,” she allowed at last, with the ghost of a tiny smile. ”And I am not accustomed to threats. They--they made me angry.”

”Yes, but you understood!” he cried. ”You understood what I sought and for what reward?”

There was something masterful, triumphant in his tone which grated on her instincts, a reaction to the days when all he said and did grated upon her. And it helped her to regain command of herself, to s.n.a.t.c.h herself from the brink to which she was drifting.

”I hoped I misunderstood,” she said coolly. ”For it was a liberty. At the time I considered it an insult.”

She did not look at him, but she heard the quick intake of his breath.

And the sudden pain in his voice smote her with remorse.

”As an insult it is atoned?” he asked. ”Does it remain a liberty still?”

She turned her eyes to his, and he looked up to know his opportunity there, and could not grasp it. He lay a prisoner at her feet. If he had been free, if his arms had been about her, if he had used his man's strength and mastery to take and hold her, if opportunity had not mocked him, would he have won? Fate knows, but fate was smiling then. And the history of man and maid from all ages is with us. Yes, he would have won; he would have won.

She gave a tiny gasp, and then the fugitive instinct, the primeval resort to flight, was upon her. She sent opportunity packing with her reply.

”I am here, by my own choice, with you--alone,” she reminded him. ”A liberty may become a question of--circ.u.mstance.”

He flushed hotly, and again remorse gripped her as she saw the haggard lines draw in about his eyes.

”I can only ask your pardon,” he answered. ”I ask it, humbly and contritely.” He gave a wry little smile. ”And perhaps circ.u.mstance is to blame, after all.”

Opportunity halted in her flight, hesitated, gave a returning step towards beckoning remorse. There was a shuffling sound at the door of the lazaret, and opportunity wheeled and fled.

”Let me in!” said a childish voice impatiently. ”It's me! It's me! Let me in!”

The girl started forward.