“And he could have known you were in Pine Mountain Lodge?” “Of course Uncle Joe might have told him.” Clifford considered a moment. “Tell me, just what has Mr. Loveman had to do with this affair?” “I have already told you everything I know.” Clifford was convinced that in this she was telling[65] him the truth. But all his senses informed him that somewhere, working in some manner, behind this affair was Peter Loveman, playing with his master’s subtlety upon human frailties, passions, and ambitions. Undoubtedly Mary Regan was being used. Undoubtedly also Commissioner Thorne had been right when he had declared that Mary Regan had no suspicion that she was being used, that she believed that whatever she was doing she was doing of her own free will. [65] He had put to her all the questions he had intended; and as for a moment he sat gazing at her—so composed, so worldly-looking, and so very young to be saying such things as she had just said—the more personal questions, which had shaken him so often, throbbed through him like so many gigantic and fiery pulse-beats: Was she through and through and unchangeably this worldly, calculating Mary Regan that she had so carefully depicted for him—or was it all just a pose? Or might she believe herself sincere in this sophistication—and yet deep down in her might there be the living essence of a very different Mary Regan that she tried to deny and ignore? He could not forget that moment in Washington Square when her soul had seemed unlocked; he could not forget her kiss.... Clifford stood up as though his intention was to leave. She also rose. His trifling strategy achieved its end—physical proximity and the chance which sitting at formal distance in chairs did not permit.[66] Suddenly he gripped her two shoulder; and the energy and purpose and feeling which he had kept in restraint during the past minutes now burst forth. [66] “Listen to me, Mary Regan,” he declared tensely. “You are not going to marry Jack Morton! You hear me!” She was so startled at the change in him that she was hardly aware of the hands clutching her shoulders. “Why not?” His words rushed out. “I’m not going to say anything about it’s not being square. He’s not good enough for you! Oh, I don’t mean to run down a man I’ve
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