'I've nothing at all to say to you. If I've—if I've made mistakes, I——'
'You've suffered for them? Yes, I fancy so. And you made some pretty big ones. It was rather a mistake to send me to the right-about, wasn't it? You were warned. You chose to go on. Here you are! Don't you sometimes think you'd better have stuck to me?'
'No!' Trix threw the one word at him with a disgusted contempt which roused his anger even while he admired the effort of her courage.
'What, you're not tamed yet?' he sneered. 'Even this palace, and Glowing Stars, and being the laughing-stock of London haven't tamed you?'
He spoke slowly, never taking his eyes from her; her defiance worked on the idea in his heart. He had run a fatal risk once before under her influence; he felt her influence again while he derided her. Enough of what he had been clung about him to make him feel how different she was from Connie Fricker. To conquer her and make her acknowledge the conquest was the desire that came upon him, tempting him to forget at what peril he would break with Connie.
'You only came here to laugh at me,' said Trix. 'Well, go on.'
'One can't help laughing a bit,' he remarked; 'but I don't want to be hard on you. If you'd done to some men what you did to me, they mightn't take it so quietly. But I'm ready to be friends.'
'Whatever I did, you've taken more than your revenge—far more. Yes, if you wanted to see me helpless and ruined, here I am! Isn't it enough? Can't you go now?'
'And how's old Mervyn? At any rate I've taken you away from him, the stuck-up fool!'
'I won't discuss Lord Mervyn.'