You never
went to supper afterwards. You tracked Dolly's car into the
Strand--running in the gutter to keep pace with it. Jealous? Great
God! No! What have I to be jealous about? What did you think you were
doing--eh? What did you think you were going to gain by it?"
Up to a moment, she met his eyes; but when he railed at her thoughts
of his jealousy, then all courage fell from her. "Jealous? Great God!
No!" She knew it was finished when he had said that and, beneath the
weight of his contempt, she crumbled into the dust of pitiful
obsession.
"Did you imagine," he went on mercilessly--"that I undertook the
arrangement of this life with you with the thought for a moment in
my mind that you would institute a close vigil over all my actions?"
"It was only because I knew you were being deceived," she said
brokenly.
"How being deceived? By whom?"
"By your sister."
"How has she deceived me?" He forced her eyes to his. "How?" he
repeated.
To defend her case, just as the woman in the Courts had done, she
told him of what Devenish had said; notwithstanding that she herself
had pleaded with Devenish to repeat nothing of what had passed
between them.
Pages:
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417