Again she called herself a little fool and bit her lip in the surge of
her vexation. She had been glad and over eager just now to restore her
faith to this big brut of a man; at a mere word from him she had been
ready to condone a crime and forgive an insult.... She felt her face
grow hot; he had kissed her rudely and she had been willing to find
excuses, she had even felt as odd sort of thrill tingling through her.
And now this eternal play-acting of his, this insane pretence....
"Mr. Thornton, this is getting us nowhere," she reminded him coldly. "If
you care to be told I can assure you that I know perfectly well who the
man was who ... who came into the cabin that night. And I think that it
would be for the best if you returned ... my property!"
"I'm going to return it. Now, will you answer my question? Will you tell
me who that man was?"
"Why do you pretend in this stupid way?" she demanded hotly.
"Why don't you tell me who he was?" he returned, frowning a little.
For a moment she did not answer. Then, her voice very low, she said,
speaking slowly,
"I don't tell you, Mr. Thornton, because you know as well as I do!"
She saw nothing but blank amazement in his eyes.
"If I knew I wouldn't be asking you," he informed her.
Again she looked up at him, their eyes meeting steadily, searchingly.
"You say that you don't know who it was?" she challenged. And the eyes
into which she looked were as clear of guile as a mountain lake when he
answered:
"No. I don't know!"
Then through lips which were moulded to a passionate scorn no less of
self than of him, in a fierce whisper, she paid him in the coin of her
contempt with the one word: "_Liar_!"
She saw the anger leap up into his eyes and the red run into his bronzed
skin, she felt the arm about her contract tensely until for one dizzy
second she thought that he would crush her. And then they were swinging
on through the dance to the merry beat of the music and above the music
she heard his soft laugh.
He did not look at her, nor did she again lift her eyes to his. But both
of them saw Broderick where he stood near the door, his hands shoved
down into his pockets, his tall, gaunt form leaning against the wall.
His eyes had been following them, and there was in them an expression
hard to read. It might have been anger or distrust or suspicion.
And both Thornton and Winifred as they turned in the dance caught a
quick glimpse of the face of another man. It was Henry Pollard. He had
evidently just come in and as evidently had not seen Thornton and his
niece dancing together until this moment. And the look in his eyes
springing up naked and startled was a thing easy to read. For it was the
look of fear!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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