He was wearing slippers that he had donned for the sick room, and they made no sound.
Saltash's lithe form straightened. He stood ready, almost on guard, at the other man's approach. But his face remained debonair still. There was even a hint of humour about his mobile brows. His eyes flashed wickedly.
"So they've turned you out, have they?" he said, with that hint of regal haughtiness that usually characterized his speech when addressing an inferior.
Jake did not answer. His eyes, red-brown and very still, were upon Maud. They did not leave her for a moment. They seemed to search her through and through.
There came to her a second of deadly panic, panic that stopped her heart. She put up a hand to her throat with a spasmodic effort to breathe. And suddenly it seemed to her that she sat engulfed in the red, red heart of a soundless furnace. She gave a gasping cry, tried to rise, and fell forward fainting at her husband's feet.
CHAPTER XXXIV
THE SACRIFICE
He lifted her. She knew that he lifted her, but all her powers were gone. She hung, a dead weight, in his arms.
Over her head she heard his voice, intensely quiet but deeper than usual; she thought it held a menacing note.
"I'll take her to the window. Thanks, I'm not wanting any help from you."