"I've done nothing of the sort, Mrs. Norton. How dare you say so? You've no right to speak to me as you're doing."
The older woman sat back coolly in her chair and laughed; but her eyes grew hard.
"Oh yes, I have, my dear girl. You two were the talk of Darjeeling before I came. Of course you're angry, naturally, at failing to catch him, but I'm going to put a stop to your trying, here and now. He has got to break with you."
"You are a wicked woman," began the girl; and then indignation choked her.
"Can you deny that you're in love with him?" she asked.
Wargrave tried to interpose; but the girl waved him aside and faced her rival.
"I'll answer you. I am. I love him as you could never do. I was willing to give him up to you--for he loves me, not you--so that he should not be false to his word. I didn't know what you were like, then. But now I don't believe you'd ever make him happy. You don't love him--you haven't got it in you. You wouldn't be content with any one man. I've watched you. You're absolutely heartless; and you'd only make Frank miserable. You're willing to disgrace him as well as yourself. You don't mind if you ruin him. Frank----"
"Then will you marry me? This woman will only wreck your life. Choose between us."
"Violet, you don't really want me, do you? You don't love me. I've felt for a long time that you're forgetting me. I love Muriel and she loves me. If you ever cared for me release me from my promise."
Mrs. Norton lay back calmly in her chair and looked with a smile from one to the other. Then she said deliberately:
"This morning I wrote to my husband and told him that I was never returning to him, that I was going to you, Frank. That is why I asked this girl here to-day to tell you before her that now I'm going to ask you to keep your promise. Will you?"
The girl looked at him appealingly and stretched out her hands to him.
"Frank, for your own sake, if not for mine, don't listen to her."
He stood irresolute, torn by conflicting emotions. Then with an effort he replied:
Mrs. Norton gave a mocking laugh. The girl shrank from him and hid her face in her hands for a moment. Then she looked up and said, desperately calm:
"Very well, be it so. You've decided and there's nothing more to be said. You've shamed me before this woman; and I never want to see you again."