There was a passion of supplication in her voice and action. As she held him he could have clasped her in his arms. But he did not. He sat motionless, looking at her, his expression still monkey-like, half-wicked, half-wistful.
"Well, you shouldn't tempt me, Juliette," he said. "It isn't fair to a miserable sinner. You were always the cherry just out of reach. Naturally, I'm inclined to snatch when I find I can."
Juliet was trembling, but she controlled her agitation.
"No, that isn't allowed," she said. "It isn't the game. And you never--seriously--wanted me either."
"But I'm never serious!" protested Saltash. "Neither are you. It's your one solid virtue."
He looked at her quizzically. "Somehow it suits you. Well, listen, _Juliette_! I'll strike a bargain with you. When you are through with this, you will come with me for that cruise in the _Night Moth_. Come! Promise!"
"But I am not--quite mad, Rex!" she said.
He lifted his hands to hers and lightly held them. "It is no madder a project than the one you are at present engaged upon. What? You won't? You defy me to do my worst?"
He flashed a smile at her. "How wise! But listen! It's a bargain all the same. You put me on my honour. I put you on yours. Go your own way! Pursue this bubble you call love! And when it bursts and your heart is broken--you will come back to me to have it mended. That is the price I put upon my mercy. I ask no pledge. It shall be--a debt of honour. We count that higher than a pledge."
"Ah!" Juliet said, and suppressed a sudden tremor.
He stood up, gallantly raising her as he did so. "And now we will go and look for your friends," he said. "Is all well, _ma chérie_? You look pale."
She forced herself to smile. "You are a preposterous person, Charles Rex," she said. "Yes, let us go!"
She turned with him towards the panelling, but she did not see by what trick he opened again the door by which they had entered. She only saw, with a wild leap of the heart, Dick Green, upright, virile, standing against the dark hangings of the passage beyond.
He was breathing hard, as if he had been hurrying. He spoke to her exclusively, ignoring the man at her side.
"Will you come at once? Mrs. Fielding has been taken ill."