“I—­think you meant it kindly,” she said under her breath.  “It was my fault, Louis.  I do not blame you, if you really cared for me.  I’ve told you so before.”

“Yes, but I was ass enough to think you cared for me.”

She lay in her hammock, looking at him across the crimson-fringed border.

“There are two ways out of it,” he said; “one is divorce.  Have you changed your mind?”

“What is the other?” she asked coldly.

“That—­if you could ever learn to care for me—­we might try—­” He stopped short.

For two years he had not ventured such a thing to her.  The quick, bright anger warned him from her eyes.  But she said quietly:  “You know that is utterly impossible.”

“Is it impossible.  Shiela?”

“Absolutely.  And a trifle offensive.”

He said pleasantly:  “I was afraid so, but I wanted to be sure.  I did not mean to offend you.  People change and mature in two years....  I suppose you are as angrily impatient of sentiment in a man as you were then.”

“I cannot endure it—­”

Her voice died out and she blushed furiously as the memory of Hamil flashed in her mind.

“Shiela,” he said quietly, “now and then there’s a streak of misguided decency in me.  It cropped out that winter day when I did what I did.  And I suppose it’s cropping up now when I ask you, for your own sake, to get rid of me and give yourself a chance.”

“How?”

“Legally.”

“I cannot, and you know it.”

“You are wrong.  Do you think for one moment that your father and mother would accept the wretched sacrifice you are making of your life if they knew—­”

“The old arguments again,” she said impatiently.

“There is a new argument,” said Malcourt, staring at her.

“What new argument?”

“Hamil.”

Then the vivid colour surged anew from neck to hair, and she rose in the hammock, bewildered, burning, incensed.

“If it were true,” she stammered, leaning on one arm, “do you think me capable of disgracing my own people?”

“The disgrace will be mine and yours.  Is not Hamil worth it?”

“No man is worth any wrong I do to my own family!”

“You are wronging more people than your own, Shiela—­”

“It is not true!” she said breathlessly.  “There is a nobler happiness than one secured at the expense of selfishness and ingratitude.  I tell you, as long as I live, I will not have them know or suffer because of my disgraceful escapade with you!  You probably meant well; I must have been crazy, I think.  But we’ve got to endure the consequences.  If there’s unhappiness and pain to be borne, we’ve got to bear it—­we alone—­”

“And Hamil.  All three of us.”

She looked at him desperately; read in his cool gaze that she could not deceive him, and remained silent.

“What about Hamil’s unhappiness?” repeated Malcourt slowly.