“Because I don’t choose to,” said Hester.
“Put your head up again,” said he.
She stood there firm as a rock for half a dozen more of those bitter blows, and then into his black heart there came a conviction, bitterer than any punishment he had inflicted on her, that he was beaten. In sheer rage at this he took her by her shoulders and shook her violently. And then came the end, for she simply collapsed on the floor, still untamed. Her bodily force might fail, but she flew no flag of surrender.
She came to herself again with the sense of Cooper near her. She turned weary eyes this way and that, but saw nothing of her father.
“Oh, Cooper, has that devil gone?” she asked.
“Eh, my lady,” said Cooper, “who are you talking of? There’s no one here but his lordship.”
Hester raised herself on her elbow and saw that awful figure standing by the great chimneypiece. The first thought that came into her mind was for Cooper.
“I wish to tell you that ever since I entered the house Cooper has been saying that she must telegraph to you that I was here,” she said.
He nodded. “That’s all right then, Cooper,” he said.
Hester watched her father take the sapphire ring from his waistcoat pocket. He put this on, and then his gloves.