"How dare you? What do you mean?"
"Don't be a fool. Do you suppose that I don't guess that that is meant for the girl who looked after your estate in order to catch you?"
She saw that this hit the mark, so she went still further.
"She, the model of virtue! why, when she was a mere girl, she disgraced herself with an old man."
As she spoke she was seized by the throat and flung backwards on to the sofa, without the grasp being relaxed. She was breathless, she saw his face over her; deadly rage was in it. A strength, a wildness of which she had no conception, gazed upon her in sensual delight at being able to strangle her.
After a wild struggle her arms sank down powerless, her will with them; only her eyes remained wide open, in terror and wonderment.
Dare he? "Yes, he dare!" Her eyes grew dim, her limbs began to tremble.
"You have taken MY apple, I tell you," was heard in a childish voice from the next room, a soft lisping voice.
It came from the most peaceful innocence in the world! It saved her!
He rushed out again; but even when the rage had left him which had seized upon him and dominated him as a rider does a horse, he was still not horrified at himself. His satisfaction at having at length made his power felt was too great for that.