He turned deliberately away, and remained rigid and outwardly composed, staring at a hideous old print on the wall, without consciously seeing what he looked at. Prudence stood up also, and approached him, a white-robed quiet figure, in the stillness of the dimly-lit room. She put one hand to her throat and nervously fingered the pearls which Edward Morgan had given her. "Yes, I'm married," she said, "to Mr Morgan." "That man!" He turned on her angrily. "He's old enough to be your father." "My mother married a man much older than herself," she answered quietly. "They were very happy." He emitted a short hard laugh. "So that's the end of my hopes," he said. "Fool that I was! I thought you cared for me." She moved nearer to him, and something of her forced control left her in that moment of intense emotion. She laid a hand swiftly on his arm; and he read the despair and the longing in her saddened eyes. "You know I cared," she said. "You know I care still. I didn't understand. I thought you had forgotten. I was not sure how much you really meant. You went away; and life was very difficult. I had to get away from it all--I had to. You had gone. I believed that I should never see you again. If I'd known you remembered, I would have borne with things; I would have waited all my life, if necessary, until you came back to me. And now you've come--and it's too late. It's too late." He looked down at her long and steadily, with a hint of something in his eyes which she did not understand, which she instinctively feared. She put a hand before her eyes to shut out that look in his; and he seized the hand and dragged it aside and compelled her to meet his gaze. "Look here," he said quickly. "We've got to meet and talk this matter out. We can't talk here. They'll miss you presently, and search for you." They had missed her already. Mr Morgan was even then on his way to discover their retreat. He approached the door while Steele spoke. Steele continued speaking rapidly and with vehement insistence. "It's not going to end like this, you know. It can't. Now that I know you love me, I'm not reckoning anything else. Nothing else counts. I'll win you, if I have to break every law under the sun. You are mine. I'll have you, whoever stands in my way. Yours is no better than a forced marriage. You belong to me. You belonged to me first. I went abroad to make a home for you. I've done that. Now I've come back to fight for you--in a double sense. If I come through this war, you go back with me. I won't go without you. Think it over. I'll see you somehow, and learn your decision later. We'll bolt. Don't be frightened. It's a bit of a muddle, but it will all come right." At which moment the door opened, and Mr Morgan, ruffled and large and important, with an air of refusing to see what was altogether painfully obvious, advanced with an exaggeration of dignity and offered Prudence his arm.