“Max,” she said earnestly, “you may not believe it, but I want your happiness above everything else in the world.  There is no one I love as I love you.  Give up—­that other affair.  Wash your hands of it.  Let Adrienne go, and take your happiness with Diana.  That’s what I’m working for—­to make you choose between Diana and that interloper.  You won’t give her up for me; but perhaps, if Diana—­if your wife—­insists, you will shake yourself free, break with Adrienne de Gervais at last.  Sometimes I’m almost tempted to tell Diana the truth, to force your hand!”

Errington’s eyes blazed.

“If you did that,” he said quietly, “I would never see, or speak to you, again.”

Olga shivered a little.

“Your honour is mine,” he went on.  “Remember that.”

“It isn’t fair,” she burst out passionately.  “It isn’t fair to put it like that.  Why should I, and you, and Diana—­all of us—­be sacrificed for Adrienne?”

“Because you and I are—­what we are, and because Diana is my wife.”

Olga looked at him curiously.

“Then—­if it came to a choice—­you would actually sacrifice Diana?”

Errington’s face whitened.

“It will not—­it shall not!” he said vehemently.  “Diana’s faith will pull us through.”

Olga smiled contemptuously.

“Don’t be too sure.  After all a woman’s trust won’t stand everything, and you’re asking a great deal from Diana—­a blind faith, under circumstances which might shake the confidence of any one.  Already”—­she leaned forward a little—­“already she is beginning to be jealous of Adrienne.”

“And whom have I to thank for that?  You—­you, from whom, more than from any other, I might have expected loyalty.”

Olga shook her head.

“No, not me.  But the fact that no wife worth the name will stand quietly by and see her husband at the beck and call of another woman.”

“More especially when there is some one who drops poison in her ear day by day,” he retorted.

“Yes,” she acknowledged frankly.  “If I can bring matters to a head, force you to a choice between Adrienne and Diana, I shall do it.  And then, before God, Max!  I believe you’ll free yourself from that woman.”

“No,” he answered quietly, “I shall not.”

“You’ll sacrifice Diana?”—­incredulously.

A smile of confidence lightened his face.

“I don’t think it will come to that.  I’m staking—­everything—­on Diana’s trust in me.”

“Then you’ll lose—­lose, I tell you.”

“No,” he said steadily.  “I shall win.”

Olga smote her hands together.

“Was there ever such a fool!  I tell you, no woman’s trust can hold out for ever.  And since you can’t explain to her—­”

“It won’t be for ever,” he broke in quickly.  “Everything goes well.  Before long all the concealment will be at an end.  And I shall be free.”