It mattered naught to her that the man who was now murmuring wild, broken words of love and passionate joy at her release from intolerable bonds, felt what the traitor feels--that his intoxication was even now seared with livid streaks of self-loathing and self-contempt.
She knew well that he would not trouble her overmuch with his remorse. She could almost hear him, in his heart, say the words he had said the night before Jane Oglander had come to disturb and trouble the sunlit waters into which they two had already glided. "It is not your fault,--any fault there may be is mine."
But just before they said good-night Lingard frightened Athena Maule, and sent her away from him cold, almost angry.
"If I were the brave man men take me to be," he said suddenly, unclasping the hands which lay in his, "I should go out into the night and shoot myself."
She had made him beg, entreat, her forgiveness for his wild, wicked words. But they frightened her--dashed her deep content.
Athena Maule did not know Hew Lingard with the intimate knowledge she had known other men who had loved her. But there was this comfort--about this man she would be able to consult Jane--Jane who was so kind, so reasonable, and who only wished to do the best for them both.
She reminded herself that men are always blind where women are concerned. If nothing else would convince Hew Lingard that Jane, after all, did not care so very much, then Jane must be persuaded, after a decent interval, to marry Dick Wantele. After what had happened to-day, everything was possible....
Athena, to-night, was "fey." She felt as if she held the keys of fate in her hands. But even so, she went on thinking of Lingard's bitter words long after they had parted, and when, having dismissed her maid, she was heating the cup of chocolate which sometimes sent her to sleep without an opiate.
And then, as she lay down among her pillows, there came over Athena Maule the curious sensation that she was not alone. Bayworth Kaye--poor Bayworth, of whom she had thought so kindly, so regretfully, only two nights ago--seemed to be there, close to her, watching, waiting....
Athena did not believe in ghosts, and so she did not feel frightened, only surprised--very much surprised.