I'll never fail you, John, but for your own sake and mine, for the sake of everything fair in the world, call him back!" He pushed away her hands, but without violence.

"I thought it would be this way," he said coldly.

"You told a very good lie, Caroline.

I suppose clever Ronicky Doone rehearsed you in it, but it needed only the oldest trick in the world to expose you." She recoiled from him.

"It was only a joke, then?
You didn't mean it, John?
Thank Heaven for that!" A savagery which, though generally concealed, was never far from the surface, now broke out in him, making the muscles of his face tense and his voice metallic.