Jasper kept another silence, more difficult, however, than his last.
His pallor was noticeable. "You say my--infidelity is common talk.
There has been a name used?"
"Your protégée from Wyoming--Jane West."
Jasper was on his feet, and Woodward too rose, jerkily holding up a
hand. "No excitement, please," he begged. "Let us conduct this
unfortunate interview like gentlemen, if possible."
Jasper laughed. "As you say--if possible. Why, man, it was Betty who
helped me bring Miss West to New York, it was Betty who helped me to
install her here, it was Betty who chose the furnishings for her
apartment, who helped her buy her clothes, who engaged her maid, who
gave her most of her training. This is the most preposterous, the most
filthy perversion of the truth. Betty must know it better than any one
else. Come, now, Woodward, there's something more in it than this?"
Jasper had himself in hand, but it was easy now to see the effort it
cost him. The veins of his forehead were swollen.
"I shall not discuss the matter with you. Betty has excellent
evidence, unimpeachable witnesses. There is no doubt in my mind, nor
in the minds of her lawyers, that she will win her suit and get her
divorce, her release. Of course, you will not contest--"
Jasper stopped in his pacing which had begun to take the curious,
circling, weaving form characteristic of him, and, standing now with
his head thrown back, he spoke sonorously.
"Do you imagine for one instant, Kane,--does Betty imagine for one
instant,--that I shall not contest?"
This changed the look of cold pleasure in Woodward's eyes, which grew
blank again. "Do you mean me to understand--Naturally, I took it for
granted that you would act as most gentlemen act under the
circumstances."
"Then you have taken too much for granted, you and Betty. Ten years
ago your sister gave herself to me. She is mine. I will not for a
whim, for a passion, for a temporary alienation, let her go. Neither
will I have my good name and the name of a good woman besmirched for
the sake of this impertinent desire for a release. I love my
wife"--his voice was especially Hebraic and especially abhorrent to
the other--"and as a husband I mean to keep her from the ruin this
divorce would mean to her--"
"Far from being her ruin, Morena, it would be the saving of her. Her
ruin was as nearly as possible brought about ten years ago, when
against the advice, against the wishes of every one who loved her, she
made her insane marriage with an underbred, commercial, and licentious
Jew. She was seventeen and you seized your opportunity."