"Eve," he said, very gently, "you don't know what you say."
She had lowered her eyes as he came towards her; now again she
lifted them in a swift, upward glance. For the first time
since he had entered the room a slight look of personal doubt
and uneasiness showed in her face. "Why?" she said. "I--I
don't understand."
For a moment he answered nothing. He had found his first
explanation overwhelming; now suddenly it seemed to him that
his present difficulty was more impossible to surmount. "I
came here to-night to tell you something," he began, at last,
"but so far I have only said half--"
"Half?"
"Yes, half." He repeated the word quickly, avoiding the
question in her eyes. Then, conscious of the need for
explanation, he plunged into rapid speech.
"A fraud like mine," he said, "has only one safeguard, one
justification--a boundless audacity. Once shake that audacity
and the whole motive power crumbles. It was to make the
audacity impossible--to tell you the truth and make it
impossible--that I came to-night.
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