She was breathing quickly but her voice was quiet.  There was indomitable resolution in her eyes.

He paused, looking at her closely.  “You deny—­to me—­what you were permitting with so much freedom barely half-an-hour ago to the village schoolmaster?” he said.

Her face flamed.  “I have always denied you—­that!” she said.

He smiled.  “Times alter, Juliette.  You are no longer in a position to deny me.”

She kept her eyes upon him.  “You mean I have trusted you too far?” she said, a deep throb in her voice.  “I might have known!”

He shrugged his shoulders.  “Life is a game of hazard, is it not?  And you were always a daring player.  But, Juliette, you cannot always win.  This time the luck is against you.”

She was silent.  Very slowly her eyes left his.  She drooped forward as she sat.

He leaned down to her again, his face oddly sympathetic.  “After all,—­you claimed my protection,” he said.

She made a sudden movement.  She turned sharply, almost blindly.  She caught him by the shoulders.  “Oh, Charles!” she said.  “Charles Rex!  Is there no mercy no honour—­in you?”

There was a passion of supplication in her voice and action.  As she held him he could have clasped her in his arms.  But he did not.  He sat motionless, looking at her, his expression still monkey-like, half-wicked, half-wistful.

“Well, you shouldn’t tempt me, Juliette,” he said.  “It isn’t fair to a miserable sinner.  You were always the cherry just out of reach.  Naturally, I’m inclined to snatch when I find I can.”

Juliet was trembling, but she controlled her agitation.

“No, that isn’t allowed,” she said.  “It isn’t the game.  And you never—­seriously—­wanted me either.”

“But I’m never serious!” protested Saltash.  “Neither are you.  It’s your one solid virtue.”

“I am serious now,” she said.

He looked at her quizzically.  “Somehow it suits you.  Well, listen, Juliette!  I’ll strike a bargain with you.  When you are through with this, you will come with me for that cruise in the Night Moth.  Come!  Promise!”

“But I am not—­quite mad, Rex!” she said.

He lifted his hands to hers and lightly held them.  “It is no madder a project than the one you are at present engaged upon.  What?  You won’t?  You defy me to do my worst?”

“No, I don’t defy you,” she said.

He flashed a smile at her.  “How wise!  But listen!  It’s a bargain all the same.  You put me on my honour.  I put you on yours.  Go your own way!  Pursue this bubble you call love!  And when it bursts and your heart is broken—­you will come back to me to have it mended.  That is the price I put upon my mercy.  I ask no pledge.  It shall be—­a debt of honour.  We count that higher than a pledge.”

“Ah!” Juliet said, and suppressed a sudden tremor.

He stood up, gallantly raising her as he did so.  “And now we will go and look for your friends,” he said.  “Is all well, ma cherie?  You look pale.”