She shrank as though he had struck her. "Oh, you couldn't!" she cried out wildly. "You couldn't! No man could be such a fiend!"
He came a step nearer to her, and suddenly his eyes glowed with a fire that scorched her to the soul. "You had better not tempt me!" he said. "Or I may do that—and more also!"
She put her hands up to shield her face from his look, but he caught them suddenly and savagely into his own, overbearing her resistance with indomitable mastery.
"Promise me!" he said. "Promise me!"
His lips were horribly near her own. She strained away from him tensely, with all her strength. "I will not!" she panted. "I will not!"
"You shall!" he declared furiously. "Do you think I will be beaten by a child like you? I tell you, you shall!"
But still desperately she struggled against him, repeating voicelessly,
"I will not! I will not!"
He gripped her fast, holding her face up mercilessly to his own. "You think I won't do it?" he said.
"I know you won't!" she gasped back. "You couldn't! No man—no man could!"
"I swear to you that I will!" he said.