"Oh, well.... Marriage 'makes the heart grow fonder,' they say," she retorted easily.
"Good God!... How dare you say such things to me ... to me?" burst out Loring furiously.
"And why not 'to you ... to you'?" she mimicked.
She slid suddenly from the edge of the table on which she had been perched, and went up close in front of him. The garnet fire blazed in her eyes now. Her black brows were drawn down close over them.
"See here, Morry," she said. "I'll give you a straight tip: You can't play dog-in-the-manger with me. You can behave decently to me or ... clear out!"
It was Loring's turn to laugh.
"'Clear out'?" he exclaimed. "Well, of all the cool minxes!— 'Clear out' did you say? ... from my own mother's house?... I'd like to know how you mean to accomplish it?"
Belinda gave him a look of supreme and contemptuous insolence.
"I'll tell Lewis the truth about you," said she.
Then Loring "saw red." Without a word, he seized her in his arms.