Manella was silent. The low chirping of a cicada hidden in the myrtle thicket made monotonous sweetness on the stillness.
Moved by some sudden instinct which he did not attempt to explain to himself, Gwent decided to venture on a little paternal advice.
"Now don't you fly off in a rage at what I'm going to say,"--he began, slowly--"You're only a child to me--so I'm just taking the liberty of talking to you as a child. Don't give too much of your time or your thought to the man you call a 'god.' He's no more a god than I am. But I tell you one thing--he's a dangerous customer!"
Manella's great bright eyes opened wide like stars in the darkness.
"Dangerous?--How?--I do not understand---!"
"Dangerous!"--repeated Gwent, shaking his head at her--"Not to you, perhaps,--for you probably wouldn't mind if he killed you, so long as he kissed you first! Oh, yes, I know the ways of women! God made them trusting animals, ready to slave all their lives for the sake of a caress. YOU are one of that kind--you'd willingly make a door-mat of yourself for Seaton to wipe his boots on. I don't mean that he's dangerous in that way, because though I might think him so, YOU wouldn't. No,--what I mean is that he's dangerous to himself--likely to run risks of his life---"
Here he paused, checked by the sudden terror in the beautiful eyes that stared at him.
"His life!" and Manella's voice trembled--"You think he is here to kill himself---"
"No, no--bless my soul, he doesn't INTEND to kill himself"--said Gwent, testily--"He's not such a fool as all that! Now look here!--try and be a sensible girl! The man is busy with an invention--a discovery--which might do him harm--I don't say it WILL--but it MIGHT. You've heard of bombs, haven't you?--timed to explode at a given moment?"
Manella nodded--her lips trembled, and she clasped her hands nervously across her bosom.
"Well!--I believe--I won't say it for certain,--that he's got something worse than that!" said Gwent, impressively--"And that's why he was chosen to live up on that hill in the 'hut of the dying' away from everybody. See? And--of course--anything may happen at any moment. He's plucky enough, and is not the sort of man to involve any other man in trouble--and that's why he stays alone. Now you know! So you can put away your romantic notions of his being 'in love'! A very good thing for him if he were! It might draw him away from his present occupation. In fact, the best that could happen to him would be that you should make him fall in love with YOU!"