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278 need for this. I have told you that I don't mean to be a barrier to your marriage."

"I am not going to marry her," said Dick.

The life came back to Tempest's face in one white terrible flash.

"What do you mean by that?" he said.

"What I say. She is not fit for you. I told you so long ago. Now I have proved it."

"Proved it?"

"She is—nothing," said Dick. "I could do what I liked with her. So could any man who took the trouble to flatter her. She is—just that!"

He snapped his fingers, looking straight at the man opposite. This was not at all the way in which he had meant to speak. But softer words were too foreign to him. They would not come.

"You say you have proved it." Tempest's mind travelled slowly through this blinding fire. "How have you proved it?"

"Before God, Tempest"

"Leave God out. How have you proved it?"

"I have flattered her. That was bait enough to take her from you. She never loved you, and she doesn't love me. She loves nothing but her own selfish body—she hasn't got a soul."

"You said you could do what you liked with her. What have you liked to do?"

The tone was perfectly level, but there was a thread in it which thrilled Dick. Had he saved this soul for which he had soiled his own, or were they both going down presently together into the night?

"I have kissed her," said Dick. "That is all. I didn't care to do more or I could have done it."

"You didn't care to do more." Tempest looked away at the glass; did not seem to recognise the face reflected there, and looked away again. "Why did you not care to do more?" he asked.

Dick's self-control was breaking.

"Because I'm not such a brute as you try to make me out," he said. "I meant to save you. That's why."