"That is my affair," she said calmly, beginning to pour out the tea.
He looked at her as if he scarcely believed his ears. He was silent for some seconds, and very quietly she turned to him and handed him a cup.
He took it from her and instantly set it aside.
"Be good enough to answer my question!" he said.
She heard the gathering sternness in his tone, and, tea-cup in hand, she laughed. A curious recklessness possessed her that night. She felt as if she had the strength to fling off the bands of tyranny. But her heart had begun to beat very fast. She realized that this was no mere skirmish.
"Why should I answer you?" she asked, helping herself to some more cream with a hand that was slightly unsteady in spite of her effort to control it. "I do not see the necessity."
"I think you do," he rejoined.
Nina said no more. She swallowed her tea, nibbled at a wafer with a species of deliberate trifling calculated to proclaim aloud her utter fearlessness, and at length rose to go.
In that moment her husband stepped forward and took her by the shoulders.
"Before you leave this room, please," he said quietly.