“Wrong!” With his arm stretched to its full length he pointed his forefinger up into Ashley’s face.  “Wrong!” he cried, again.  “I asked him if she had anything to do with it, and he said she hadn’t.”

“Pff!  Would you expect him to acknowledge it?  He might deny it till he damned his soul with lies; but that wouldn’t keep you and him from—­”

“Before God, Ashley, I never thought of it till later.  I know it looks that way—­the way you put it—­but I never thought of it till later.  I dragged it out of him that he’d once been in love with her and had asked her to marry him.  That was a regular knock-down surprise to me.  I’d had no idea of anything of the kind.  But he said he wasn’t in love with her any longer.  I dare say he thinks he isn’t; but—­”

“Suppose he is; that needn’t affect her—­except as an impertinence.  A woman can defend herself against that sort of thing, by Jove!”

“It needn’t affect her—­only—­only as a matter of fact—­it does.  It appeals to her imagination.  The big scale of the thing would impress almost any woman.  Look here, Ashley,” he cried, with a touch of hysteria; “it’ll be better for us all in the long run if you’ll give him a chance.  It’ll be better for you than for any one else.  You’ll be well out of it—­any impartial person would tell you that.  You must see it yourself.  You do see it yourself.  We’re not your sort—­”

But Ashley could stand it no longer.  With a smothered, inarticulate oath, he turned abruptly, and marched out of the room.

XIX

Fortunately there was no one in the upper hall, nor on the stairs, nor in the lower hall, nor in the oval room into which Ashley stumbled his way.  The house was all sunshine and silence.  He dropped into the nearest arm-chair.  “It’s a lie,” he kept repeating to himself.  “It’s a lie.  It’s a damned, infernal lie.  It’s a put-up job between them—­between the old scoundrel and that—­that oaf.”

The reflection brought him comfort.  By degrees it brought him a great deal of comfort.  That was the explanation, of course!  There was no need of his being panic-stricken.  To frighten him off was part of their plan.  Had he not challenged her two or three times to say she didn’t care for him?  If she had any doubt on the subject he had given her ample opportunity to declare it.  But she had not done so.  On the contrary, she had made him both positive and negative statements of her love.  What more could he ask?

He breathed again.  The longer he thought of it the better his situation seemed to grow.  He had done all that an honorable man could think of.  He had been chivalrous to a quixotic degree.  If they had not accepted his generous proposals, then so much the worse for them.  They—­Guion and Davenant—­were pursuing obstructionist tactics, so as to put him in a place where he could do nothing but retreat.  Very well; he would show them!  There were points beyond which even chivalry could not go; and if they found themselves tangled in their own barbed wire they themselves would be to blame.