'I'll be satisfied if you'll only tell me one thing.' She put her hands to her head with a rapid, aimless movement that showed the extremity of her agitation. 'Oh, what has love done with me?' she cried desperately. 'I was so proud of my brother and so utterly devoted to him. But I loved you so much that there wasn't any room in my heart for the past. I forgot all my unhappiness and all my loss. And even now they seem so little to me beside your love that it's you I think of first. I want to know that I can love you freely. I'll be satisfied if you'll only tell me that when you sent George out that night, you didn't know he'd be killed.' Alec looked at her steadily. And once more he saw himself in the African tent amid the rain and the boisterous wind. At the time he sought to persuade himself that George had a chance of escape. He told him with his own lips that if he showed perfect self-confidence at the moment of danger he might save himself alive; but at the bottom of his heart he knew, he had known all along, that it was indeed death he was sending him to, for George had not the last virtue of a scoundrel, courage. 'Only say that, Alec,' she repeated. 'Say that's not true, and I'll believe you.' There was a silence. Lucy's heart beat against her breast like a caged bird. She waited in horrible suspense. 'But it is true,' he said, very quietly. Lucy did not answer. She stared at him with terrified eyes. Her brain reeled, and she feared that she was going to faint. She had to put forth all her strength to drive back the enveloping night that seemed to crowd upon her. 'It is true,' he repeated. She gave a gasp of pain. 'I don't understand. Oh, my dearest, don't treat me as a child. Have mercy on me. You must be serious now. It's a matter of life and death to both of us.' 'I'm perfectly serious.' A frightful coldness appeared to seize her, and the tips of her fingers were strangely numbed. 'You knew that you were sending George into a death-trap? You knew that he could not escape alive?' 'Except by a miracle.' 'And you don't believe in miracles?' Alec made no answer. She looked at him with increasing horror. Her eyes were staring wildly. She repeated the question. 'And you don't believe in miracles?' 'No.' She was seized with all manner of conflicting emotions. They seemed to wage a tumultuous battle in the depths of her heart. She was filled with horror and dismay, bitter anger, remorse for her callous indifference to George's death; and at the same time she felt an overwhelming love for Alec. And how could she love him now? 'Oh, it can't be true,' she cried. 'It's infamous. Oh, Alec, Alec, Alec... O God, what shall I do.' Alec held himself upright. He set his teeth, and his heavy jaw seemed squarer than ever. There was a great sternness in his voice. 'I tell you that whatever I did was inevitable.' Lucy flushed at the sound of his voice, and anger and sudden hatred took the place of all other feelings.