He pulled himself together.
"It's true enough." He swore under his breath. "She didn't leave
me. She was taken away. And I'll get her back if I-- You little
fool, I ought to kill you. If you wanted a cheap revenge, you've got it."
"I don't want revenge, Lou."
He caught her by the arm.
"Then what brought you here?"
"I wanted to be sure Lily Cardew was married."
"Well, she is. What about it?"
"That's all."
"That's not all. What about it?"
She looked up at him gravely.
"Because, if she is, I am going to marry Mr. Cameron tomorrow." At
the sight of his astounded face she went on hastily: "He knows, Lou,
and he offered anyhow."
"And what," he said slowly, "has my wife to do with that?"
"I wanted to be fair to him. And I think he is--I think he used
to be terribly in love with her."
Quite apart from his increasing fear of Willy Cameron and his
Committee, there had been in Akers for some time a latent jealousy
of him. In a flash he saw the room at the Saint Elmo, and a
cold-eyed man inside the doorway. The humiliation of that scene
had never left him, of his own maudlin inadequacy, of hearing from
beyond a closed and locked door, the closing of another door behind
Lily and the man who had taken her away from him.
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