"I will not!" she exclaimed, trembling in every fiber, but he gently, firmly took her arm and drew her to the wicker bench. "I hate you, Philip Quentin!" she half sobbed, the powerlessness to resist infuriating her beyond expression.
"Forget that I was rough or harsh, dear. Sit still," he cried, as at the word of endearment she attempted to rise.
"You forget yourself! You forget--" was all she could say.
"Why did you refuse to see me this afternoon?" he asked, heedlessly.
"Because I believed you to be what I now know you are," she said, turning on him quickly, a look of scorn in her eyes.
"A coward!" she said, slowly, distinctly.
"Coward?" he gasped, unwilling to believe his ears. "What--I know I may deserve the word now, but--but this afternoon? What do you mean?"
"Don't speak in riddles, Dorothy," he cried.
"You know how I loathe a coward, and I thought you were a brave man. When I heard--when I was told--O, it does not seem possible that you could be so craven."
"Tell me what you have heard," he said, calmly, divining the truth.
"Why did you let Dickey Savage fight for you last night? Where was your manhood? Why did you slink away from Prince Ravorelli this morning?" she said, intensely.
"Who has told you all this?" he demanded.
"No matter who has told me. You did play the part of a coward. What else can you call it?"
"I did not have the chance to fight last night; your informant's plans went wrong Dickey was my unintentional substitute. As for Ravorelli's challenge this morning, I did not refuse to meet him."
"I declined to fight the duel with him, but I said I would fight as we do at home, with my hands. Would you have me meet him with deadly weapons?"
"I only know that you refused to do so, and that Brussels calls you a coward."
"You would have had me accept his challenge? Answer!"
"You lost every vestige of my respect by refusing to do so."
"Then you wanted me to meet and to kill him," he said, accusingly.
"I--I--Oh, it would not have meant that," she gasped.
"Did you want him to kill me?" he went on, relentlessly.
"They would have prevented the duel! It could not have gone so far as that," she said, trembling and terrified.
"You know better than that, Dorothy. I would have killed him had we met. Do you understand? I would have killed the man you expect to marry. Have you thought of that?" She sank back in the seat and looked at him dumbly, horror in her face. "That is one reason why I laughed at his ridiculous challenge. How could I hope to claim the love of the woman whose affianced husband I had slain? I can win you with him alive, but I would have built an insurmountable barrier between us had he died by my hand. Could you have gone to the altar with him if he had killed me?"