"Killing's a sin, sure enough," she murmured.
"I went away," Heyst continued. "I left him there, lying on his side
with his eyes shut. When I got back here, I found you looking ill. What
was it, Lena? You did give me a scare! Then I had the interview with
Wang while you rested. You were sleeping quietly. I sat here to consider
all these things calmly, to try to penetrate their inner meaning and
their outward bearing. It struck me that the two days we have before
us have the character of a sort of truce. The more I thought of it, the
more I felt that this was tacitly understood between Jones and myself.
It was to our advantage, if anything can be of advantage to people
caught so completely unawares as we are. Wang was gone. He, at any rate,
had declared himself, but as I did not know what he might take it into
his head to do, I thought I had better warn these people that I was no
longer responsible for the Chinaman. I did not want Mr. Wang making some
move which would precipitate the action against us. Do you see my point
of view?"
She made a sign that she did. All her soul was wrapped in her passionate
determination, in an exalted belief in herself--in the contemplation
of her amazing opportunity to win the certitude, the eternity, of that
man's love.
"I never saw two men," Heyst was saying, "more affected by a piece of
information than Jones and his secretary, who was back in the bungalow
by then.
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