He was responsible
for Viviette. That risk of horror he could not let her run. He had
hoped, with a great agony of hope, that Dick would have seen it for
himself. To formulate it had been torture. But he could not weaken. The
barrier between Dick and Viviette was not of his making. It was composed
of the grim psychological laws that govern the abnormal. To have
disregarded it would have been a crime from which his soul shrank. All
the despair in Dick's face, though it wrung his heart, could not move
him. It was terrible to be chosen in this way to be the arbiter of
Destiny. But there was the decree, written in letters of blood and
flame. And Dick had bowed to it.
"What's to become of her?" he groaned.
"This will be her home, as it always has been," said Austin.
"I don't mean that--but between us we shall break her heart. She has
given it to me just in time for me to do it. My luck!"
Austin tried to comfort him. A girl's heart was not easily broken. Her
pride would suffer most. Pain was inevitable.
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