_Enter_ CARLYON, _from_ L. _back round the house_.
[_Coming forward impulsively._] Vera, it gives me fresh life to see your face! [_Kisses her, then throws himself into the chair. She stands helpless, having stifled her first impulse to run forward and greet him._] Great Heavens, how tired I am! I have ridden fifty miles since midday. [_Throwing himself back and stretching his arms out._] Ah, I suppose I should not have thought much of it once!
I thought your heart might fail you. You were all alone.
I was anxious at not hearing from you. I knew it was a heavy burden for you, and I came to help. Did you need help?
[_Pause._ CARLYON _gets up and walks a little way, then turns._
It is? Oh, thank God! I was so tired! I felt this man as a terror hanging over me. I seemed like an old man just now, for the first time. [_Pause; he walks again, then looks at her closely._] You are pale. He is not actually dead?
You do not like to speak of it? Never mind.--Vera, you have been a good and brave daughter to me. You have given me rest, the first time in my life I have ever needed it.
[_She stands leaning backward slightly against the wall, and speaks with effort, throwing the lamplight full on his face._
What do you mean? [_Putting up his hand._] Turn off that light from my eyes!
You must face more light than this. I have not helped you. There is no rest for you here, no rest anywhere that I know of.
I have watched him till he is almost safe. If you want him to die now you must kill him outright--by force.
[_Passionately._] No. I have betrayed you! Can't you ever see it? I have turned against you, and you are beaten! You have told me everything. I alone----
_You_ daren't lift your voice! I don't fear that.
There are proofs enough without me! And witnesses; Selim first----
[_As if stung._] Be quiet! Let me think. [_Pause._] To think that _you_ should have done it! To think of the vermin I have trusted before, and none of them ever betrayed me!
No; _you_ betrayed _them_! Oh, it is their blind faith that has made you so pitilessly false!
To trust _you_--it was like trusting myself!
[_With a bitter laugh._] It was! It was! It was like trusting Judas! [_A pause._] Was I to be a Koreb, mad and heartbroken in prison? Or like Elizabeth, who has lost her very soul, and cannot see that there is any human being in the world but you?