"Do _you_ love _her_?" he asked with
great deliberation, as though he had rehearsed it in his mind for days.
"Certainly not," was the immediate reply.
The silence that followed could have been cut with a knife. Everyone stood
as though turned to stone. Surely this denial would be enough. Pell did not
move. A menacing expression came over his face. As though there were no one
else in the world, he glanced first at his wife and then at Jones, and
affirmed with quiet deliberation:
"You're a couple of rotten liars!"
Had he been struck in the face, Gilbert could not have been angrier. He saw
it all now--he was in this man's power, utterly. It had been planned
craftily, smoothly. And there was no escape for Lucia. God! what he had
gotten her in for! He cursed the tongue of Uncle Henry, and mentally he
heaped maledictions on his own head for his gross stupidity. So this was
how the land lay--this was the path that led to his destruction--ah! not
only his, but hers! Angry as he was, he knew it would be futile to do
anything but try, even now, to placate this wretched specimen of a man. He
had to think quickly. There was not an instant to lose.
"But you said you didn't believe .
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