"I pick up things by noticing people closely, and I have realised that all your life you have counted upon getting your own way because you saw that people--especially women --have a horror of public scenes, and will submit to almost anything to avoid them.That is true very often, but not always."Her eyes, which were well opened, were quite the blue of steel, and rested directly upon him."I, for instance, would let you make a scene with me anywhere you chose--in Bond Street--in Piccadilly--on the steps of Buckingham Palace, as I was getting out of my carriage to attend a drawing-room--and you would gain nothing you wanted by it--nothing.You may place entire confidence in that statement."He stared back at her, momentarily half-magnetised, and then broke forth into a harsh half-laugh.
"You are so damned handsome that nothing else matters.
I'm hanged if it does!" and the words were an exclamation.
He drew still nearer to her, speaking with a sort of savagery.
"Cannot you see that you could do what you pleased with me? You are too magnificent a thing for a man to withstand.
I have lost my head and gone to the devil through you.
That is what I came to say."
In the few seconds of silence that followed, his breath came quickly again and he was even paler than before.
"You came to me to say THAT?" asked Betty.
"Yes--to say it before you drove me to other things."Her gaze was for a moment even slightly wondering.He presented the curious picture of a cynical man of the world, for the time being ruled and impelled only by the most primitive instincts.To a clear-headed modern young woman of the most powerful class, he--her sister's husband--was making threatening love as if he were a savage chief and she a savage beauty of his tribe.All that concerned him was that he should speak and she should hear--that he should show her he was the stronger of the two.
"Are you QUITE mad?" she said.
"Not quite," he answered; "only three parts--but I am beyond my own control.That is the best proof of what has happened to me.You are an arrogant piece and you would defy me if you stood alone, but you don't, and, by the Lord! Ihave reached a point where I will make use of every lever Ican lay my hand on--yourself, Rosalie, Ughtred, Ffolliott--the whole lot of you!"
The thing which was hardest upon her was her knowledge of her own strength--of what she might have allowed herself of flaming words and instant action--but for the memory of Rosy's ghastly little face, as it had looked when she cried out, "You must not think of me.Betty, go home--go home!"She held the white desperation of it before her mental vision and answered him even with a certain interested deliberateness.
"Do you know," she inquired, "that you are talking to me as though you were the villain in the melodrama?""There is an advantage in that," he answered, with an unholy smile."If you repeat what I say, people will only think that you are indulging in hysterical exaggeration.They don't believe in the existence of melodrama in these days."The cynical, absolute knowledge of this revealed so much that nerve was required to face it with steadiness.
"True," she commented."Now I think I understand.""No, you don't," he burst forth."You have spent your life standing on a golden pedestal, being kowtowed to, and you imagine yourself immune from difficulties because you think you can pay your way out of anything.But you will find that you cannot pay your way out of this--or rather you cannot pay Rosalie's way out of it.""I shall not try.Go on," said the girl."What I do not understand, you must explain to me.Don't leave anything unsaid.""Good God, what a woman you are!" he cried out bitterly.He had never seen such beauty in his life as he saw in her as she stood with her straight young body flat against the tree.It was not a matter of deep colour of eye, or high spirit of profile--but of something which burned him.Still as she was, she looked like a flame.She made him feel old and body-worn, and all the more senselessly furious.
"I believe you hate me," he raged."And I may thank my wife for that." Then he lost himself entirely."Why cannot you behave well to me? If you will behave well to me, Rosalie shall go her own way.If you even looked at me as you look at other men--but you do not.There is always something under your lashes which watches me as if I were a wild beast you were studying.Don't fancy yourself a dompteuse.I am not your man.I swear to you that you don't know what you are dealing with.I swear to you that if you play this game with me I will drag you two down if I drag myself with you.Ihave nothing much to lose.You and your sister have everything.""Go on," Betty said briefly.