"Oh no, you won't," said Miss Lorry, showing her fine white teeth; "what do you mean by splitting?"
"I was paid to do so," said Merry coolly; "so, now you know the worst, don't keep me chattering here all night. I 'ave to go on soon."
"I have my turn first," said Miss Lorry, glancing at a printed bill pinned against the wall of the van. "I must speak out, or burst," she put her hand to her throat as though she were choking. "You beast," she cried furiously, "have I not suffered enough at your hands already?"
"You were always a tigress," growled Merry, shrinking back before her fury; "I married you when you was a slip of a girl----"
"And a fool--a fool!" cried the woman, beating her breast; "oh, what a fool I was! You know my father was a riding-master, and----"
"And how you rode to show off to the pupils?" said Merry with a coarse laugh. "I just do. It was the riding took me."
"You came as a groom," panted Miss Lorry, fixing him with a steelly glare, "and I was idiot enough to admire your good looks. I ran away with you, and we were married----"
"I did the straight thing," said Giles, "you can't deny that."
"I wish I had died, rather than marry you," she said savagely. "I found myself bound to a brute. You struck me--you ill-treated me within a year of our marriage."
Merry lifted a lock of his black hair and showed a scar. "You did that," he said; "you flew at me with a knife."