“Town and I have parted company, mother!” he said. He spoke hoarsely, but the emotion in his tone was the reflex of that through which he had just passed in meeting Clemence; his manner was even callous.
“That would be true indeed,” was the quick answer, “if you had succeeded in leaving England! Not only town and you, but life and you--everything that makes life worth living--would have parted company! To go away now is to cut your own throat!”
“Haven’t you told them?” he said thickly. “Don’t they know that--that is done?”
“Your mother knows----” he began; but Mrs. Romayne interposed, lifting her hand peremptorily without even glancing at him.
“I know everything,” she said. “I know that you are in hideous danger, and if you run away from it it is indeed all over with you. You must face it; you must defy it!”
As though in her last words she had touched and given form and life to the very core of the determination which had nerved her since she had first read Julian’s letter that morning, her voice rose as she spoke them into a ring of indomitable courage, vibrating with the very triumph of that defiance of which she spoke. Her slight, haggard physique seemed to expand, to gain in dignity and power; as the whole room seemed to fill with the magnetism of her intense resolution. There was an instant’s pause, and then an exclamation broke alike from Julian and from Falconer. Julian’s was almost derisive in its absolute repudiation of her words; Falconer’s was sternly incredulous. Clemence was standing a little apart. No sound came from her, but she lifted her face suddenly and turned it towards Mrs. Romayne. A vague horror and confusion had dawned in her eyes.
Before the annihilating words with which Falconer obviously intended to follow up his first ejaculation could be uttered, Mrs. Romayne was speaking again--in a rapid, businesslike tone now, but always with that ring of triumph behind it.
“You must come back with me to-night and take up your position as if nothing could shake it. You must fight for your credit and your social status tooth and nail. When you have lost them you have lost everything! You have not lost them yet, and no risk is too great to run for their retention.”