He frowned, with a vicious movement of his lips:  then meeting her gaze, made an awkward effort to seem at ease.

“My dear child!” he said, stepping back and leaning his back against the door, “what melodrama!  The truth! what truth?”

“How often you must have withheld it from me, to ask like that!  The truth about Philip Rainham, and that woman:  that is what I ask!”

Lightmark exclaimed petulantly at this: 

“Haven’t we discussed it all before?  Haven’t you questioned me beyond all limits?  Haven’t you said that you believed me?  And what a time——­”

“Yes, I have asked you before.  Is it my fault that you have lied?  Is it my fault that you have made it possible for—­for someone else to prove to me, to-night, that you have deceived me?  The time is not of my making.  But now, I must have the truth; it is the only reparation, the last thing I shall ask of you!”

“You must be mad!” he stammered, his self-possession deserting him; “you don’t know—­you have no right to speak to me like this.  You don’t understand these things; you must let me judge for you——­”

“The only thing I understand clearly is that you have blackened another man’s—­your friend’s—­memory.  Isn’t that enough?  Can you deny that you have allowed him to bear your shame?  I know now that he was innocent; I insist that you shall tell me the rest!”

“The rest!” he repeated impatiently, shifting his attitude.  “I won’t submit to this cross-examination!  I have explained it all before; I decline to say any more!”

“Then you cling to your lie?”

“Lie?  Pray, don’t be so sensational; you talk like the heroine of a fifth-rate drama!  Who has put such a mad idea into your head?  Let me warn you that there are limits to my patience!”

“I will tell you, if you will come with me and deny it to his face—­if you will refute his proofs.”

“Proofs!  You have no right to ask such a thing!  I tell you, I have acted for the best.  Why should you believe the first comer rather than me?”

“Why?  You can ask why!” she interposed.

“Let me beg of you to come back with me to our guests; we shall be missed—­people will talk!”

Eve shrugged her shoulders defiantly, ironically.

“You prevaricate; you won’t, you can’t be candid!  There is only one other man who can tell me the truth—­you make it necessary, I must go to him.”

Lightmark clenched his hand viciously upon the handle of the door.

“I decline to discuss this damnable folly any longer; if you won’t come with me I shall go alone; I shall say that you are ill—­really, I think you must be!”

“Go by all means!” she replied indifferently, “but tell me first, where can I find Mr. Oswyn?”

He paused, gazing at her blankly.

“Oswyn?”

“Yes.  The man who is not afraid to denounce you.  If you won’t enlighten me, if you won’t clear your—­your friend’s memory—­it may be at the expense of your own—­perhaps he will.”