"You infernal fiend----"
"Gently! Gently! Hard names break no bones, Colonel. You should be more of a man than to throw words at a woman."
"Are you a woman?"
"Yes," gasped Maunders, raising himself on his elbow and wiping the froth from his pale lips; "she is Frances Hest right enough. Her brother is a myth invented by herself to mask her devilries. But Frances or Francis--she is The Spider!"
"I did not mean that exactly," said Towton in his hard voice; "but I asked if one capable of the enormities credited to The Spider can possibly be a woman."
"I am The Spider," said Miss Hest with a shrug. "There is your answer."
"You are a demon."
"More names! Really, Colonel Towton, you are very childish. You sink to the level of that fool," and she pointed scornfully to Ida, who was weeping in the chair as though her heart would break.
"To think that I should have been her friend," moaned Ida with a fresh burst of tears and hiding her face.
"You little fool," said Frances in a gentle, dangerous voice. "I have been a better friend to you than you think. But that I pitied you as being a poor, weak, silly worm, I would have murdered you long ago."