Wingarde saw it.

"Please understand," he said curtly, "that I will listen to you only so
long as you keep your temper! I believe that you know what I mean--what
circumstances I refer to. If you wish me to put them into plain language
I will do so. But I don't think you will like it."

Archie pounced upon the words.

"You would probably put me to the trouble of calling you a liar if you
did," he said, in a shaking voice. "I have no more intention than you
have of mincing matters. As to listening to me, you shall do that in any
case. I am going to tell you the truth, and I mean that you shall hear
it."

He strode to the door as he spoke, and locked it, pocketing the key.

Wingarde did not stir to prevent him. He waited with a sneer on his lips
while Archie returned and took up his stand facing him.

"You seem very sure of yourself," he said in a quiet tone.

"I am," Archie said doggedly. "Absolutely sure. You think I am in love
with your wife, don't you?"

Wingarde frowned heavily.

"Are you going to throw dust in my eyes?" he asked contemptuously.

Archie locked his hands behind him.

"I am going to tell you the truth," he said again, and, though his voice
still shook perceptibly there was dignity in his bearing. "Three years
ago I was in love with her."

"Calf love?" suggested Wingarde carelessly.

"You may call it what you like," Archie rejoined. "That is to say,
anything honourable. I was hard hit three years ago, and it lasted off
and on till her marriage to you. But she never cared for me in the same
way. That I know now. I proposed to her twice, and she refused me."

"You weren't made of money, you see," sneered Wingarde.

Archie's fingers gripped each other. He had never before longed so
fiercely to hurl a blow in a man's face.

"If I had been," he said, "I am not sure that I should have made the
running with you in the field. That brings me to what I have to say to
you. I wondered for a long time how she brought herself to marry you.
When you came back from your honeymoon I began to understand. She
married you for your money; but if you had chosen, she would have
married you for love."

He blurted out the words hastily, as though he could not trust himself
to pause lest he should not say them.

Wingarde stood up suddenly to his full height. For once he was taken
totally by surprise and showed it. He did not speak, however, and Archie
blundered on:

"I am not your friend. I don't say thi