Nina looked back at him. Her lips quivered a little, but when she spoke her voice was absolutely steady. She held her head resolutely high.
"I think Archie must have forgotten to thank you," she said, "for what you did. But I have not. Will you accept my gratitude?"
There was proud humility in her voice. But Wingarde only shrugged his shoulders with a sneer.
"Your gratitude would have been more genuine if you had been saved a widow instead of a wife," he said brutally.
She recoiled from him. Her eyes flashed furious indignation. She felt as if he had struck her in the face. She spoke instantly and vehemently. Her voice shook.
"That is a poison of your own mixing," she said. "You know it!"
"What! It isn't true?" he asked.
He drew suddenly close to her. His eyes gleamed also with the gleam of a smouldering fire. She saw that he was moved. She believed him to be angry. Trembling, yet scornful, she held her peace.
He gripped her wrists suddenly, bending his dark face close to hers.
"If it isn't true—" he said, and stopped.