Mrs Gabriel's eyes flashed. "If I told you that—" she began, then closed her mouth and turned away.
"Then you do hate me?"
"Yes. With all my soul!" She turned on him like a fury. "I have hated you from the moment you came into my house. All these years I have been on the point of turning you out. Go now, and never darken my doors again. I was a fool to have anything to do with you. Go! Go!"
For a moment Leo stood bewildered at her furious speech. He thought she was mad, for he could not conceive why she should speak so. It was useless to talk or to remonstrate, or to seek an explanation. He looked at her for a moment, then, without a word, he walked away. In another quarter of an hour he had left the castle, bag and baggage.
"Thank God!" cried Mrs Gabriel when alone. "I am rid of him at last!"
CHAPTER IX
A BAD REPUTATION
Pratt sat alone in his library. He was not reading, for although he had many books he rarely looked into one of them. He collected rare editions, he indulged in gorgeous bindings, and placed all his gatherings on shelves behind glass doors. It was the look of the thing Pratt liked. If his collection had been so many volumes of blank pages he would have been just as well pleased.