She could not refuse the appeal. It went straight to her heart. She put her arms about the quivering, convulsed form and held it close.
"I can't go!" she said hurriedly to the squire.
"Stay then!" he said curtly.
Then abruptly he stooped over the trembling, hysterical woman. "Vera," he said, "stop it at once! Do you hear me? Stop it!"
He did not raise his voice, but his words had a pitiless distinctness that seemed somehow more forcible than any violence. Vera Fielding shrank closer to Juliet's breast.
"Don't leave me! Don't leave me!" she moaned, still shaken from head to foot with great sobs she could not control.
"She won't go if you behave yourself," said the squire grimly. "But if you don't, I'm damned if I won't turn her out and deal with you myself."
"Don't be brutal!" breathed Juliet.
He gave her a swift, fierce look, but she met it unflinching and as swiftly it fell away from her. He took one of his wife's feverish, clutching hands and firmly held it.
"Now you listen to me!" he said. "I don't want to bully you but I can't and won't have this sort of thing. It's damnably unfair to everybody. So you pull yourself together and be quick about it!"