Her voice broke for the moment, and when she went on there was a note of appeal in it that well-nigh convicted him to himself of being a brute.

“Don’t you see?—­it spoils everything; it makes the whole situation impossible . . . and . . . and I so loved our partnership, and was proud of it.  Don’t you see?—­I can’t go on being your partner if you make love to me.  And I was so happy.”

Tears of disappointment were in her eyes, and she caught a swift sob in her throat.

“I warned you,” he said gravely.  “Such unusual situations between men and women cannot endure.  I told you so at the beginning.”

“Oh, yes; it is quite clear to me what you did.”  She was angry again, and the feminine appeal had disappeared.  “You were very discreet in your warning.  You took good care to warn me against every other man in the Solomons except yourself.”

It was a blow in the face to Sheldon.  He smarted with the truth of it, and at the same time he smarted with what he was convinced was the injustice of it.  A gleam of triumph that flickered in her eye because of the hit she had made decided him.

“It is not so one-sided as you seem to think it is,” he began.  “I was doing very nicely on Berande before you came.  At least I was not suffering indignities, such as being accused of cowardly conduct, as you have just accused me.  Remember—­please remember, I did not invite you to Berande.  Nor did I invite you to stay on at Berande.  It was by staying that you brought about this—­to you—­unpleasant situation.  By staying you made yourself a temptation, and now you would blame me for it.  I did not want you to stay.  I wasn’t in love with you then.  I wanted you to go to Sydney; to go back to Hawaii.  But you insisted on staying.  You virtually—­”

He paused for a softer word than the one that had risen to his lips, and she took it away from him.

“Forced myself on you—­that’s what you meant to say,” she cried, the flags of battle painting her cheeks.  “Go ahead.  Don’t mind my feelings.”

“All right; I won’t,” he said decisively, realizing that the discussion was in danger of becoming a vituperative, schoolboy argument.  “You have insisted on being considered as a man.  Consistency would demand that you talk like a man, and like a man listen to man-talk.  And listen you shall.  It is not your fault that this unpleasantness has arisen.  I do not blame you for anything; remember that.  And for the same reason you should not blame me for anything.”

He noticed her bosom heaving as she sat with clenched hands, and it was all he could do to conquer the desire to flash his arms out and around her instead of going on with his coolly planned campaign.  As it was, he nearly told her that she was a most adorable boy.  But he checked all such wayward fancies, and held himself rigidly down to his disquisition.