For one moment his grasp tightened and his white teeth caught his lower lip; but his look was changing slowly.
'For her sake,' Margaret said, 'as you would have kept harm from her——'
His hold relaxed, and he turned away. There was good in him still; he had loved his mother.
He turned deliberately, till he could see neither Margaret nor the Aphrodite, and he leaned heavily on the table, with bent head, resting the weight of his body on the palms of his hands, and remaining quite motionless for some time.
He heard her go towards the door. Without looking round he slowly shook his head.
'Don't be afraid of me,' he said, in a low voice. 'It's all over, now. I'll let you out in a moment.'
'Yes.'
She waited quietly by the door, which she did not understand how to open. Presently he moved a little, and his head sank lower between his shoulders; then he spoke again, but still without turning towards her.
'I'm sorry,' he said. 'I did not know I could be such a brute. Forgive me, will you?'
As usual, when he was very much in earnest, there was something rudely abrupt about his speech.