"
Jack would have left it there for the moment. Maurice Gordon had
made his meaning quite clear by glancing significantly towards his
sister. Her presence, he intimated, debarred further explanation.
But Jocelyn would not have it thus. She shrewdly suspected the
nature of the bargain proposed by Durnovo, and a sudden desire
possessed her to have it all out--to drag this skeleton forth and
flaunt it in Jack Meredith's face. The shame of it all would have a
certain sweetness behind its bitterness; because, forsooth, Jack
Meredith alone was to witness the shame. She did not pause to
define the feeling that rose suddenly in her heart. She did not
know that it was merely the pride of her love--the desire that Jack
Meredith, though he would never love her, should know once for all
that such a man as Victor Durnovo could be nothing but repugnant to
her.
"If you mean," she said, "that you cannot tell Mr. Meredith because
I am here, you need not hesitate on that account."
Maurice laughed awkwardly, and muttered something about matters of
business. He was not good at this sort of thing. Besides, there
was the initial handicapping knowledge that Jocelyn was so much
cleverer than himself.
"Whether it is a matter of business or not," she cried with
glittering eyes, "I want you to tell Mr.
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