His voice sank.  He stooped towards her.

But she drew back sharply.  “Guy, don’t forget—­don’t forget—­I am married to Burke!” she said, speaking quickly, breathlessly.

His hands tightened upon her.  “I am going to forget,” he told her fiercely.  “And so are you.  You have no love for him.  Your marriage is nothing but an empty bond.”

“No—­no!” Painfully she broke in upon him.  “My marriage is—­more than that.  I am his wife—­and the keeper of his honour.  I am going back to him—­to-morrow.”

“You are not!  You are not!” Hotly he contradicted her.  “By to-morrow we shall be far away.  Listen, Sylvia!  I haven’t told you all.  I am rich.  My luck has turned.  You’ll hardly believe it, but it’s true.  It was I who won the Wilbraham diamond.  We’ve kept it secret, because I didn’t want to be dogged by parasites.  I’ve thought of you all through.  And now—­and now—­” his voice vibrated again on that note of triumph—­“I’ve come to take you away.  Mine at last!”

He would have drawn her to him, but she resisted him.  She pushed him from her.  For the first time in her life she looked at him with condemnation in her eyes.

“Is this—­true?” Her voice held a throb of anger.

He stared at her, his triumph slowly giving place to a half-formed doubt.  “Of course it’s true.  I couldn’t invent anything so stupendous as that.”

She looked back at him mercilessly.  “If it is true, how did you find the money for the gamble?”

The doubt on his face deepened to something that was almost shame.  “Oh, that!” he said.  “I—­borrowed that.”

“You borrowed it!” She repeated the words without pity.  “You borrowed it from Burke’s strong-box.  Didn’t you?”

The question was keen as the cut of a whip.  It demanded an answer.  Almost involuntarily, the answer came.

“Well—­yes!  But—–­I hoped to pay it back.  I’m going to pay it back—­now.”

“Now!” she said, and almost laughed.  Was it for this that she had staked everything—­everything she had—­and lost?  There was bitter scorn in her next words.  “You can pay it back to Donovan Kelly,” she said.  “He has replaced it on your behalf.”

“What do you mean?” His hands were clenched.  Behind his cloak of shame a fire was kindling.  The glancing lightning seemed reflected in his eyes.

But Sylvia knew no fear, only an overwhelming contempt.  “I mean,” she said, “that to save you—­to leave you a chance of getting back to solid ground—­Donovan and I deceived Burke.  He supplied the money, and I put it back.”

“Great Jove!” said Guy.  He was looking at her oddly, almost speculatively.  “But Donovan never had any money to spare!” he said.  “He sends it all home to his old mother.”

“He gave it to me nevertheless.”  Sylvia’s voice had a scathing note.  “And—­he pretended that it had come from you—­that you had returned it.”