“Do you think I’d starve if I wasn’t here?” he said.
She wished it were like that. She wished she had the power of life and death over him. She would conquer him!
She was silent for a moment, thinking how she could do it. He watched her; and, for all his scorn, his heart beat fast at the sight of her vivid beauty. She was a tall girl, thin, with a dark, narrow face, rouged and powdered, her cruel mouth reddened. She was dressed in a fur coat and high-heeled shoes, with her pearls about her neck. She was for him the very symbol of the new world of money that he so fiercely desired.
“Gunnar!” she said.
“Well?” returned Gunnar.
She was not looking at him now.
“Sunday evening I’m going to be all alone.”
A sort of fear seized them both, for they saw a crisis coming near. Either she must win or he must win.
“What about it?” asked Gunnar.
“You can telephone me on Sunday afternoon,” she said, “if you want to come.”