"
She drew back as she might have done from some unclean animal. She
knew that he was telling the truth. There might be extenuating
circumstances. The real truth might have quite a different sound,
spoken in different words; but there was enough of the truth in it,
as Victor Durnovo placed it before her, to condemn Maurice before
the world.
"Now will you marry me?" he sneered.
"No!"
Quick as thought she had seen the only loophole--the only possible
way of meeting this terrible accusation.
He laughed; but there was a faint jangle of uneasiness in his
laughter.
"Indeed!"
"Supposing," said Jocelyn, "for one moment that there was a grain of
truth in your fabrication, who would believe you? Who on this coast
would take your word against the word of an English gentleman? Even
if the whole story were true, which it is not, could you prove it?
You are a liar, as well as a coward and a traitor! Do you think
that the very servants in the stable would believe you? Do you
think that the incident of the small-pox at Msala is forgotten? Do
you think that all Loango, even to the boatmen on the beach, ignores
the fact that you are here in Loango now because you are afraid to
go through a savage country to the Simiacine Plateau as you are
pledged to do? You were afraid of the small-pox once; there is
something else that you are afraid of now.
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