She was like that--full of life, superb. But--I had come to
her, and I found I couldn't leave her. She wanted me--she wanted me--to
take her back." He got up, but not with any agitation, and began to pace
to and fro as though he paced a deck. "You will think me mad of course.
You never came under the spell. But I, I was first with her; and
perhaps it was fitting that I should be the last. Had she lived--after
to-night--I would have taken her away. She would never have danced again.
I would have taken her out of this damnable world that had dragged her
down. I'd have saved her somehow."
"You wouldn't," said Saltash. "It's like a recurrent fever. You'd never
have held her."
"I say I would." Larpent spoke deeply, but still without emotion. "I
could have done it--and no one else on earth. I tell you I was first with
her, and a woman doesn't forget the first. I had a power that no other
man ever possessed, or ever could possess. I was--her husband."
"What?" said Saltash.
Larpent paced on with bent head. "I was her husband. But I was at sea and
she was on shore. And so I lost her. She was not made to stand against
temptation. It came to her when I was on the other side of the world.
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