"May I read what you have written?" he asked.
She gave him the manuscript without a word. He only glanced at the envelope and then slipped the whole packet in the inner pocket of his coat.
"I may be able to make a suggestion or two," he went on with a kindly smile, "something that you will call by the ugly name of compromise. But, darling, I cannot help it. I still think that you look at the whole thing from too lofty an elevation. Come down to earth, little one, and look at it from a more practical point of view."
He had succeeded in capturing both her hands, and with a sudden, compelling gesture he forced her down on her knees. She gave a little cry because he had hurt her wrists; but the next moment he had his arms round her shoulders and his face buried between her throat and chin. Rosemary managed to push him away from her.
"Not now, Jasper," she murmured, "please!"
He gave a curious, hoarse laugh.
"Not now?" he retorted. "Any time, sweetheart, is kissing time! And if you only knew how I ache with wanting your kiss!" He held her by the shoulders and gazed on her with such a living flame in his deep-set, dark eyes, that it seemed to consume the veils that hid her soul and to leave it stripped before his gaze and shamed in its nakedness.
"If you loved me ever so little," he murmured between his teeth. He kissed her on the lips once, twice, till hers were seared and bruised, then he released her so suddenly that she lost her balance and almost measured her length on the floor while he rose abruptly to his feet. He looked down at her for a moment or two, but made no attempt to help her to get up; seeing her struggles he laughed and shrugged his shoulders.
"I wonder, sometimes," he said in a hard, dry voice, "why one goes on living. How much easier it would be just to lie down and die. Look at the fuss there is because a boy and a girl will be lucky enough to go out of this world before they have learned to hate it. They don't know how much easier it is to die than to live. And how much better! For me how much better! But the best of all would be to see you dead, my dear, for then you could not go on hurting me, as you do—as you would do even if I were in my grave——"
And with that he strode out of the room and banged the door to behind him.