Mrs. Bezel laughed scornfully, and pointed toward the door.
"If that is all you have to say you had better go," she said jeeringly. "You know well enough that you cannot harm me without jeopardizing your own position."
They looked at one another fiercely, each trying to outstare the other. Hilliston's eyes were the first to fall, and he hastily turned toward the door.
"So be it," he said, with his hand on the knob; "you want war. You shall have it. See Claude, tell him all. I can defend myself."
On leaving the house a few minutes later, he paused irresolutely by the gate and looked back.
"If I could only find the paper," he muttered, "she could do nothing. As it is——"
He made a gesture of despair and plunged into the darkness.