Her eyes flashed as she looked up at him. "Of course she is one. Her husband, too, is an adventurer. They're both trying to push themselves in among the best people. And you are helping them. You are helping him because of her; and you are helping her ... well, you are helping her because of herself."
Goldwin gave a smile at this. She perceived, then, how very angry he was. She knew his smile so well that when it came, different from any other she had ever seen on the same lips, it struck her by its cold novelty.
"You called upon this adventuress," he said; "you were willing to do that."
"Yes—to please you."
"Allow that as your reason. You called on her in private to please me. You will not meet her in public to please me. Is not that just how the case stands?"
She fixed her eyes on his face. Her feverish look had grown humid. He could plainly note that her lips trembled. She was so alive, now, to a sense of his being very indignant, that this realization frightened her, and she let him see, with pitiable candor, just how much it frightened her.
"You are in love with Mrs. Hollister," she murmured. "And—she is in love with you."
She showed him the full scope of his power by those few words. He walked toward the door, pausing on its threshold.
"I won't remain to hear you insult a woman whom I respect," he said; "you called her an adventuress, which is untrue; you now say something even worse."
"Will you deny it?" she asked, rising.