There was a pause, then, with a gesture, as if he had mastered himself,
Dene went on: "Well, I have bullied you, after all, haven't I? And, upon my soul, I
didn't mean to; for I knew it would be only waste of breath. Nothing can
really touch you; and you'll forget every nasty thing I've said as soon
as you've got rid of me safely. No; what I came to say was this: I'm not
going to show you up. I'm going to take this thing upon me; you know why
well enough."
Heyton shot a glance at him, a glance full of hate and jealousy.
"Yes, it's for Miriam's sake," said Dene, quietly, without any sign of
emotion. "She and I were pals; nothing had ever come between us until
you turned up. She would have married me but for you. Oh, I'm not
blaming her; poor girl, there's a weak streak in her; she comes of a bad
lot. Of course, the Earl of Heyton, the son of a marquess, was a better
match than Derrick Dene, a nobody, with his fortune to make, his bare
living to get; but, on my soul, I think she would have stood by me, and
would have resisted the temptation, if you had not told lies about me
and persuaded her that I was an utter blackguard. And, by the way, you
did it rather well. I was quite astonished how she let things out just
now when she came to me. You did it very well. And I thought you were an
utter fool!"
The other man glanced wickedly under his brows and set his teeth, but he
said nothing; he was afraid to utter a word lest he should rouse his
victim from his state of calm and quiet.
"It was clever of you to saddle poor little Susie Morton's trouble on
me, while you were really the man--the scoundrel, I should say; it was
clever of you to rake up all my little sky-larkings and turn them into
something worse. Well, they say that 'all is fair in love and war.' You
won, you took her away from me--and it's about Miriam that I've come to
talk to you."
Heyton moistened his lips and, with his eyes fixed on his patent leather
boots, he said, thickly: "Did you tell her that--the truth?"
Dene laughed shortly. "No; I didn't. Nine men out of ten would think I
was a fool for not doing so; certainly you would. But most men wouldn't
understand, and most assuredly you wouldn't, why I didn't. No; I didn't
tell her that I was innocent and that you were guilty; that you had
forged a cheque and got me, like a fool, to present it. I didn't even
tell her that it was you, you blackguard, who had ruined poor little
Susie. You look surprised."