“Misfortune has not chastened you, I see,” crowed he.
“It has not tried to,” I said, “till this moment. Now you have seen me, will you let me go, and ride back to tell Mrs. de Crespigny that she has nothing more to fear from my rivalry?”
He regarded me with a delighted humour.
“When I go, you come with me.”
“O no!”
“O yes! straight back to Dr. Peel and his whippings.”
“You will not—you will not!” I clasped my hands upon his knee in a frenzy of terror. I was quite broken in a moment. “Don’t send me back to that hell!” I implored.
He lusted over my fear. He could not for long bring himself to ease it.
“What have you got to offer me to stay my hand?” he said at last.
I was silent.