“No. If you were a man I should call you out.” And Musa rose also. “And I should be right. As you are a woman I have told you the truth, and I can do no more. I shall not characterise your denial. I have no taste for recrimination. Besides, in such a game, no man can be the equal of a woman. But I maintain what I have said, and I affirm that I know it to be true, and that there is no excuse for your conduct. And so I respectfully take leave.” He moved towards the door and then stopped. “There never had been any excuse for your conduct to me,” he added. “It has always been the conduct of a rich and capricious woman who amused herself by patronising a poor artist.”
“You may be interested to know,” she said fiercely, “that I am no longer rich. Last night I heard that my fortune is gone. If I have amused myself, that may amuse you.”
“It does amuse me,” he retorted grimly and more loudly. “I wish that you had never possessed a son. For then I might have been spared many mournful hours. All would have been different. Yes! From three days ago when I saw you walking intimately in the Tuileries Gardens with the unspeakable Gilman—right back to last year when you first, from caprice, did your best to make me love you—did it deliberately, so that all the Quarter could see!”
In a furious temper Audrey rushed past Musa to the door, and stood with her back to it, palpitating. She vaguely recalled a similar movement of hers long ago, and the slightly comic figure of Mr. Foulger flitted through her memory.
“You shall apologise for that! You shall apologise before you leave this room!” she exploded. Her chin was aloft and her mouth remained open. “I say you shall apologise for that monstrous untruth!”
He approached her, uttering not a word. She was quite ready to kill him. She had no fear of anything whatever. Not once since his arrival had she given one thought to the imminent advent of Mr. Gilman.
She said to herself, watching Musa intently:
“Yes, he shall apologise. It is shameful, what he says. It’s worse than horrid. I am as strong as he is.”
Musa dropped his hat, stick and gloves. The hat, being English and hard, bounced on the carpet. Then he put his trembling arms around her waist, and his trembling lips came nearer and nearer to hers.
She thought, very puzzled: