She called up the picture of Lord Nick, half-broken, but still terrible, she well knew.  She pitied him, but when did pity wholly rule the heart of a woman?  And as for Nelly Lebrun, she had the ambition of a young Caesar; she could not fill a second place.  He who loved her must stand first, and she saw Donnegan as the invincible man.  She had not believed half of his explanation.  No, he was shielding Lord Nick; behind that shield the truth was that the big man had quailed before the small.

Of course she saw that Donnegan, pretending to be constrained by his agreement with Lord Nick, was in reality cunningly pleading his own cause.  But his passion excused him.  When has a woman condemned a man for loving her beyond the rules of fair play?

“Whatever you may decide,” Donnegan was saying.  “I shall be prepared to stand by it without a murmur.  Send Landis back to your father’s house and I submit:  I leave The Corner and say farewell.  But now, think quickly.  For Lord Nick is coming to receive your answer.”

37

If the meeting between Lord Nick and Donnegan earlier that day had wrought up the nerves of The Corner to the point of hysteria; if the singular end of that meeting had piled mystery upon excitement; if the appearance of Donnegan, sitting calmly at the table of the girl who was known to be engaged to Nick, had further stimulated public curiosity, the appearance of Lord Nick was now a crowning burden under which The Corner staggered.

Yet not a man or a woman stirred from his chair, for everyone knew that if the long-delayed battle between these two gunfighters was at length to take place, neither bullet was apt to fly astray.

But what happened completed the wreck of The Corner’s nerves, for Lord Nick walked quietly across the floor and sat down with Nelly Lebrun and his somber rival.

Oddly enough, he looked at Donnegan, not at the girl, and this token of the beaten man decided her.

“Well?” said Lord Nick.

“I have decided,” said the girl.  “Landis should stay where he is.”

Neither of the two men stirred hand or eye.  But Lord Nick turned gray.  At length he rose and asked Donnegan, quietly, to step aside with him.  Seeing them together, the difference between their sizes was more apparent:  Donnegan seemed hardly larger than a child beside the splendid bulk of Lord Nick.  But she could not overhear their talk.

“You’ve won,” said Lord Nick, “both Landis and Nelly.  And—­”

“Wait,” broke in Donnegan eagerly.  “Henry, I’ve persuaded Nelly to see my side of the case, but that doesn’t mean that she has turned from you to—­”

“Stop!” put in Lord Nick, between his teeth.  “I’ve not come to argue with you or ask advice or opinions.  I’ve come to state facts.  You’ve crawled in between me and Nelly like a snake in the grass.  Very well.  You’re my brother.  That keeps me from handling you.  You’ve broken my reputation just as I said you would do.  The bouncer at the door looked me in the eye and smiled when I came in.”