"If this is only amusement
to you, tell me so and let me go away. It is the first time in my
life that a woman has come between me and my work. I am no longer
master of myself. I am obsessed with you. I want nothing else in
life but your love."
There was an almost startling change in Philippa's face. The banter
which had served her with so much effect, which she had relied upon
as her defensive weapon, was suddenly useless. Lessingham had
created an atmosphere around him, an atmosphere of sincerity.
"Are you in earnest?" she faltered.
"God knows I am!" he insisted.
"You--you care for me?"
"So much," he answered passionately, "that for your sake I would
sacrifice my honour, my country, my life."
"But I've only known you for such a short time," Philippa protested,
"and you're an enemy."
"I discard my birth. I renounce my adopted country," he declared
fiercely. "You have swept my life clear of every scrap of ambition
and patriotism. You have filled it with one thing only--a great,
consuming love."
"Have you forgotten my husband?"
"Do you think that if he had been a different sort of man I should
have dared to speak? Ask yourself how you can continue to live
with him? You can call him which you will. Both are equally
disgraceful. Your heart knows the truth. He is either a coward or
a philanderer.
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