"Well, if you will have it, you must. And that is--by making a good marriage."
She uttered a short sharp cry, followed by a prolonged wail, such as a stricken hare gives. Lionel Brakespere looked up at her; but his face never relaxed, and his arms still remained tightly folded across his breast. Then she spoke, very quietly and very sadly:
"By making a good marriage! Ah! then I see it all. That is why you are annoyed at my having come to you. That is why you dread the sight of me, because it reminds you that I am in the way; reminds you of the existence of the clog round your neck that prevents your taking up this position for which you long; because it reminds you that you once sacrificed self to sentiment, and permitted yourself to be guided by love instead of ambition. That is what you mean?"
His face was darker than ever as he said, "No such d--d nonsense. I don't know what you're talking about; no more do you I should think, by the way in which you are going on. What are you talking about?"
He spoke very fiercely; but she was not cowed or dashed one whit. In the same quiet voice she said: "I am talking about myself--your wife!"
Lionel Brakespere sprung from the corner of the table on which he had been sitting, and stood upright, confronting her.
"O, that's it, is it?" in a hard low voice. "That's your game, eh? I thought it was coming to that. Now, look here," shaking his fist at her,--"drop that for good and all; drop it, I tell you, or it will be the worse for you. Let me hear of your saying a word about your being my wife, and, so help me God, I'll be the death of you! That's plain, isn't it? You understand that?"
She never winced; she never moved. She sat quietly under the storm of his rage; and when he had finished speaking, she said:
"You can kill me, if you like,--you very nearly did, just before you left me,--but so long as I am alive I shall be your wife!"
"Will you, by George?--not if there's law in the land, I can tell you. What have you been doing all this time? How have you been living since Ive been away? How do you come here, dressed like a swell as you are, when I left you without money? I shall want to know all that; and I'll find out, you may take your oath. There are heaps of ways of discovering those things now, and places where a fellow has only to pay for it, and he may know any thing that goes on about any body. I don't think you would particularly care to have those inquiries made about you, eh?"