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Page 100
Mary suddenly turned on him with a flash of the eye which
might have warned Bryce that he had signally failed in the
main feature of his adventure.
"And what have you learnt that makes you come here and tell me
all this?" she exclaimed. "Do you think I'm a simpleton, Dr.
Bryce? You set out by saying that Dr. Ransford is in danger
from the police, and that you know more--much more than the
police! what does that mean? Shall I tell you? It means that
you--you!--know that the police are wrong, and that if you
like you can prove to them that they are wrong! Now, then
isn't that so?"
"I am in possession of certain facts," began Bryce. "I--"
Mary stopped him with a look.
"My turn!" she said. "You're in possession of certain facts.
Now isn't it the truth that the facts you are in possession of
are proof enough to you that Dr. Ransford is as innocent as I
am? It's no use your trying to deceive me! Isn't that so?"
"I could certainly turn the police off his track," admitted
Bryce, who was growing highly uncomfortable. "I could
divert--"
Mary gave him another look and dropping her needlework
continued to watch him steadily.
"Do you call yourself a gentleman?" she asked quietly. "Or
we'll leave the term out. Do you call yourself even decently
honest? For, if you do, how can you have the sheer impudence
--more, insolence!--to come here and tell me all this when you
know that the police are wrong and that you could--to use your
own term, which is your way of putting it--turn them off the
wrong track? Whatever sort of man are you? Do you want to
know my opinion of you in plain words?"
"You seem very anxious to give it, anyway," retorted Bryce.
"I will give it, and it will perhaps put an end to this,"
answered Mary. "If you are in possession of anything in the
way of evidence which would prove Dr. Ransford's innocence and
you are wilfully suppressing it, you are bad, wicked, base,
cruel, unfit for any decent being's society! And," she added,
as she picked up her work and rose, "you're not going to have
any more of mine!"
"A moment!" said Bryce. He was conscious that he had somehow
played all his cards badly, and he wanted another opening.
"You're misunderstanding me altogether! I never said--never
inferred--that I wouldn't save Ransford."
"Then, if there's need, which I don't admit, you acknowledge
that you could save him?" she exclaimed sharply. "Just as I
thought. Then, if you're an honest man, a man with any
pretensions to honour, why don't you at once! Any man who had
such feelings as those I've just mentioned wouldn't hesitate
one second. But you--you!--you come and--talk about it! As
if it were a game! Dr. Bryce, you make me feel sick,
mentally, morally sick."
Bryce had risen to his feet when Mary rose, and he now stood
staring at her. Ever since his boyhood he had laughed and
sneered at the mere idea of the finer feelings--he believed
that every man has his price--and that honesty and honour are
things useful as terms but of no real existence. And now he
was wondering--really wondering--if this girl meant the things
she said: if she really felt a mental loathing of such minds
and purposes as he knew his own were, or if it were merely
acting on her part. Before he could speak she turned on him
again more fiercely than before.
"Shall I tell you something else in plain language?" she
asked. "You evidently possess a very small and limited
knowledge--if you have any at all!--of women, and you
apparently don't rate their mental qualities at any high
standard. Let me tell you that I am not quite such a fool as
you seem to think me! You came here this afternoon to bargain
with me! You happen to know how much I respect my guardian
and what I owe him for the care he has taken of me and my
brother. You thought to trade on that! You thought you could
make a bargain with me; you were to save Dr. Ransford, and for
reward you were to have me! You daren't deny it. Dr. Bryce
--I can see through you!"
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