“I suppose when they got the treaty she⁠—wasn’t any good to them any longer, and they were afraid to let her go.”

“Well, I’m darned!” said Julius. “Little Tuppence. She sure was the pluckiest little girl⁠—”

But suddenly something seemed to crack in Tommy’s brain. He rose to his feet.

“Oh, get out! You don’t really care, damn you! You asked her to marry you in your rotten cold-blooded way, but I loved her. I’d have given the soul out of my body to save her from harm. I’d have stood by without a word and let her marry you, because you could have given her the sort of time she ought to have had, and I was only a poor devil without a penny to bless himself with. But it wouldn’t have been because I didn’t care!”

“See here,” began Julius temperately.