“I do deny it.  How dare you make such an assertion?” she cried, hotly.

“I said it would avail you nothing to deny it, but I expected the denial.  You have not forgotten those dear days when we were boy and girl.  We both thought they had gone from us forever, but we were mistaken To-day I love you as a man loves, only as a man can love who has but one woman in his world.  Sit here beside me, Dorothy.”

“I will not!” she exclaimed, trembling in every fiber, but he gently, firmly took her arm and drew her to the wicker bench.  “I hate you, Philip Quentin!” she half sobbed, the powerlessness to resist infuriating her beyond expression.

“Forget that I was rough or harsh, dear.  Sit still,” he cried, as at the word of endearment she attempted to rise.

“You forget yourself!  You forget—­” was all she could say.

“Why did you refuse to see me this afternoon?” he asked, heedlessly.

“Because I believed you to be what I now know you are,” she said, turning on him. quickly, a look of scorn in her eyes.

“Your adorer?” he half-whispered.

“A coward!” she said, slowly, distinctly.

“Coward?’’ he gasped, unwilling to believe his ears.  “What—­I know I may deserve the word now, but—­but this afternoon?  What do you mean?”

“Your memory is very short.”

“Don’t speak in riddles, Dorothy,” he cried.

“You know how I loathe a coward, and I thought you were a brave man.  When I heard—­when I was told—­O, it does not seem possible that you could be so craven.”

“Tell me what you have heard,” he said, calmly, divining the truth.

“Why did you let Dickey Savage fight for you last night?  Where was your manhood?  Why did you slink away from Prince Ravorelli this morning?” she said, intensely.

“Who has told you all this?” he demanded.

“No matter who has told me.  You did play the part of a coward.  What else can you call it?”

“I did not have the chance to fight last night; your informant’s plans went wrong Dickey was my unintentional substitute.  As for Ravorelli’s challenge this morning, I did not refuse to meet him.”

“That is untrue!”

“I declined to fight the duel with him, but I said I would fight as we do at home, with my hands.  Would you have me meet him with deadly weapons?”

“I only know that you refused to do so, and that Brussels calls you a coward.”

“You would have had me accept his challenge?  Answer!”

“You lost every vestige of my respect by refusing to do so.”

“Then you wanted me to meet and to kill him,” he said, accusingly.

“I—­I—­Oh, it would not have meant that,” she gasped.

“Did you want him to kill me?” he went on, relentlessly.

“They would have prevented the duel!  It could not have gone so far as that,"’ she said, trembling and terrified.