Page:Randall Parrish--My Lady of the South.djvu/296

MY LADY OF THE SOUTH She looked at me in strange bewilderment, her cheeks flushed, her breath rapid.

"I—I do not quite understand; you—you mean Calvert Dunn?"

"Certainly not. You forgot I have already overheard your opinion of the Lieutenant. My reference was to Colonel Donald."

"Oh!" the exclamation of surprise came through her parted lips without effort at restraint. "To Colonel Donald? You mean—"

"That I am not blind to your feeling toward him. Not only your actions, but your words as well, have convinced me that he is more to you than any of us. Am I not correct?"

"I deny the right of Lieutenant King to question me."

"But not that of your husband. This relationship, oddly as it came about, disagreeable as it may be to you, surely entitles me to know the truth."

She hesitated, her lips tightly compressed, as though thus holding back her first impulse to answer.

"Why do you ask this?"

"Because you are legally my wife, because my heart also claims you, and I cannot give you up without cause."

"With cause you will? With cause you will renounce all claim upon me, relinquish all effort to hold me through this form of marriage? "

"Yes," I assented soberly, "I will endeavor to act the part of a gentleman."

There was a moment of silence in which I looked at her, leaning against the dresser with eyes lowered to the [ 280 ]