“Just the same!” she snapped. “It was your fault. If it hadn’t been for you, I’m quite sure Father would never have invited him.”
“I never heard of your father’s sacrificing his own wishes to that extent for my sake,” said Caine, unwarily. “If he invited Conover out of compliment to me, he didn’t think it important enough to tell me so. Shall I thank him?”
“No, no!” cried Letty in alarm. “And,” with recovering self-control, “I never want to see that man again as long as I live. I feel—strangled—when he is near me. As if he were trying to master me as he does his railroads and legislatures. He hypnotizes me, with his mud-colored eyes and that great lower jaw. I—I hate him. I’ll—I’ll never have to see him again, will I? Promise me!”
Punishment had given place to a demand for coddling. Caine rose ardently to the occasion. Yet she was not content.
“Promise me!” she reiterated, “Promise me he’ll never come here again.”
“He’ll have to pay a dinner call,” protested Caine. “Even Conover knows enough to do that, I’m afraid. If he doesn’t, Miss Shevlin will tell him.”
“I won’t be at home!” she declared, fearfully, “I—he can’t make me see him. I never want to see either of them again. Either of them. Promise me I needn’t. Promise me you’ll thrash him if he annoys me.”
She peered coyly up at him from between thin, soaked lashes; her nose quivering. But, for once, loverlike heroics were lacking. For, even as he started to voice the idle promise, a picture of Blacarda,—smashed and unrecognizable, screaming in agony of terror—flashed into Caine’s mind. And the pardonable boast stuck midway in his throat.
“I think you are getting tired of me,” sobbed Letty, accusingly. “If you are, don’t be afraid to say so. I can bear it. It’s only one thing more for me to bear.”
Mrs. Hawarden, at Desirée’s whispered plea, had offered Caleb a homeward lift in her carriage. The Fighter sat in heavy silence throughout the drive. When the carriage stopped at Desirée’s door, he helped her out and, with a grunt of goodnight to Mrs. Hawarden, followed the girl up the walk. Nor did he speak as he unlocked the door for her.