imperturbability all departed. "Why," he burst out suddenly, "why
did you do it?"

She looked at him with the faintest ghost of a smile on her lips,
as if she found the question amusing. But before she could frame
any answer he was speaking again, quickly and nervously.

"Could you suppose that I should wish to purchase my life at such
a price? Could you suppose that your honour was not more precious
to me than my life? It was infamous that you should have sacrificed
yourself in this manner."

"Infamous of whom?" she asked him coolly.

The question gave him pause. "I don't know!" he cried desperately.
"Infamous of the circumstances, I suppose."

She shrugged. "The circumstances were there, and they had to be met.
I could think of no other way of meeting them."

Hastily he answered her out of his anger for her sake: "It should
not have been your affair to meet them at all."

He saw the scarlet flush sweep over her face and leave it deathly
white, and instantly he perceived how horribly he had blundered.

"I'm sorry to have been interfering," she answered stiffly, "but,
after all, it is not a matter that need trouble you." And on the
words she turned to depart again. "Good-day, Captain Tremayne."