"Yes, she's proud. There is good blood in her. I don't wonder now that I used to think she was such a marvel. She's--she's not just the same sort of stock that we are, take it as you will."
"She never must know the truth, David."
"She's bound to find it out, dear. We'd better tell her. It will be easier for her. Bansemer's fangs must be made harmless forever. He shan't bother her. She'd better hear the story from us and not from him."
"But Graydon? She'll lose him, David."
"I'm not so sure of it. She's worthy of any man's love and we must know that Graydon loves her. I'll trust to that. But, first of all, we must put it beyond the power of James Bansemer to injure her in any shape or form. Then, when I go after him--Graydon or no Graydon--he'll know that there is such a place as hell."
"Be rational, David. Let us take our time and think well, dear. I can't bear the thought of the story that will go out concerning me--how I deceived you about Jane for years and years. What will people think of me? What will they say?" she almost wailed.
"Frances," said he, his voice tense and earnest, "that is between you and me. I intend to say to the world, if occasion demands, that I have known from the first that Jane was not our child. That will be---"
"Oh, David, you CAN'T say that," she cried joyously.
"I shall say it, dear old partner. I shall say that you took her from the asylum with my consent. There is only James Bansemer to call me a liar, and he will not dare!"
"That old man Droom, David--his clerk. The man who saved me--he knows."
"He is in the boat with his master. He DID save you, though. I'll spare him much for that. And I have more to fear from him than you think. Frances, I am sure he saw me night before last down there at the sea wall. He knows--I am morally certain--that you were not attacked by a robber."
"But, David, I WAS robbed. My rings and my pendant were taken by someone. If Droom was the first man at my side--after you--then he must have taken them."
"I can't charge him with the theft," groaned Cable. "He saved your life and he might ruin mine. I would give anything I have to know just how much he saw of the affair. I can't account for his presence there. It seems like fate."
"It is impossible for him to accuse you, David."