“Your friendship and enmity are equally indifferent to me,” retorted Annesley, raising his voice; “and I should advise you to retire, or my servant must show you the door. I have nothing in common with gamblers and blacklegs.”
He spoke so loudly that every word reached the ears of the trembling Theresa, and she crept near to the door, ready to push between her husband and the foe. It was not the detective; the man’s tones were strange to her. Who else was he but one of the fiends who was pursuing her with the relentless certainty of fate?
“A gambler and a blackleg, am I?” cried Rivington, his voice full of concentrated rage. “Well, granted that I am, I think that you are the last man on earth to preach morality, Sir Harold Annesley! To be plain with you, I am here to warn you against intriguing with women to whom you have no right! Pray remember, also, that you are a married man!”
“Scoundrel!”
“Scoundrel to your teeth!” was the bitter retort. “The kisses of another woman are still fresh upon your lips! I heard your words of endearment, and as that woman belongs to me, I have a right to protest against your secret visits to my house——”
“Your house!” cried Sir Harold, in a white heat of passion, his features working with a fury that he could hardly control. “Your house!”
“Yes, my dear Annesley. There are the papers—agreements and receipts to prove it. Lady Elaine Seabright is under my protection, and I was not well pleased to discover that you had been poaching upon my preserves. I hate scandal, but I shall undeceive this trusting wife of yours unless——”
“You craven, lying cur!” thundered Annesley. “Lady Elaine under your protection—the sweetest, truest woman that ever lived! You slander her, and I will choke the words in your lying throat! I have just parted from Lady Elaine—I admit it. I also admit that I love her still, and shall ever love her. We drifted apart through misunderstandings created by serpents of your stamp, and though there is a legal bar between us, I shall watch over the woman I love with a never-relaxing vigilance, and an arm ever ready to avenge!”
He opened the door, adding, “Stimson, see this creature to the street.”
The viscount tried to smile bravely, but it was only a ghastly grin. He never knew how he descended the broad stairs, but he found himself being advised to “Move on!” by a burly policeman, who had no sympathy with his savage gesticulations.