Tessa continued to dance and jeer till suddenly, finding that she was making no headway, a demon of temper entered into her. She turned in a fury, sprang from the verandah to the compound, snatched up a handful of small stones and flung them full at the impassive Monck.
They fell around him in a shower. He looked up at last.
What ensued was almost too swift for Stella's vision to follow. She saw him leap the verandah-balustrade, and heard Tessa's shrill scream of fright. Then he had the offender in his grasp, and Stella saw the deadly determination of his face as he turned.
In spite of herself she sprang up, but again his voice checked her. "All right. This is my job. Bring me the strap off the bag in my room!"
"Everard!" she cried aghast.
Tessa was struggling madly for freedom. He mastered her as he would have mastered a refractory puppy, carrying her up the steps ignominiously under his arm.
"Do as I say!" he commanded.
And against her will Stella turned and obeyed. She fetched the strap, but she held it back when he stretched a hand for it.
"Everard, she is only a child. You won't—you won't——"
"Flay her with it?" he suggested, and she saw his brief, ironic smile. "Not at present. Hand it over!"