“Most emphatically. Be good enough not to trouble me any further. Our interview is at an end, and I must request you to leave, or, at any rate, not to press your society on me.”
“Did any one ever hear of such audacity?” exclaimed Peace, in a perfect fury. “Do you suppose that I am to be taken in by your fine airs and graces? Play them off upon somebody else—they are thrown away upon me. I don’t appreciate them—don’t believe in them; so the sooner you return to your own natural character the better. I am not to be tricked or hoodwinked. Where do you live, and what are you doing? Don’t toss your head; I must and will have an answer.”
“Once more I tell you not to interfere with me,” cried Bessie. “I do not choose to hold further parley with you. As one whom I knew some long time ago I have been courteous enough to exchange a few words with you. Now I wish I had not done so, for your tone and manner cannot be considered otherwise than offensive in the eyes of any well-bred person, and I therefore request you to leave, as I do not choose to be subject to your insults.”
“Insolent minx!” exclaimed Peace, seizing the speaker by the wrist, which he grasped with an iron grip. “You shan’t escape me—you have played me false, you have been carrying on a nice game without doubt. But you will find, my lady, that you won’t have it all your own way, now. I’m not to be shaken off. I will know what you have been up to, and where you are residing. I swear by the Lord above us that I will not leave till you have told me.”
As he gave utterance to this speech he shook her angrily, and grasped her wrist with such force that the bracelet she wore was forced into her flesh and produced acute agony.
She gave utterance to a slight scream and called for assistance.
One of the waiters at the establishment who heard the angry altercation beckoned to a stalwart policemen who was near the entrance, who at once came forward.
Peace’s countenance wore at this time a most diabolical expression.
“What is the matter, madam?” inquired the constable, in a respectful tone.
“This man is both threatening and annoying me. In the absence of my friends and relations, who are in the grounds but will return shortly, I am constrained to appeal to you for protection.”