"This is better yet! I came to tell you that the counter-attack failed!" he said as he saw her appear from the shelter of the arbor.
She wondered if she were going to fall. But the post of the trellis was within reach. She caught hold of it to steady herself. Failed! All her acting had served only to make such a trap for the Browns as Lanny had planned for the Grays! She was grateful for the darkness that hid her face, which was incapable of any expression now but blank despair. Westerling's figure loomed very large to her as she regained her self-possession—large, dominant, unconquerable in the suggestion of five against three. And felicitations were due! She drew away from the post, swaying and trembling, nerves and body not yet under command of mind. She could not force her tongue to so false a sentiment as congratulation.
"The killing—it must have been terrible!" her mind at last made her exclaim to cover her tardiness of response to his mood.
"You thought of that—as you should—as I do!" he said.
He took her hands in his, pulsing warm with the flowing red of his strength. She let them remain lifelessly, as if she had not the will to take them away, the instinct of her part again dominant. To him this was another victory, and it was discovery—the discovery of melting weakness in her for the first time, which magnified his sense of masculine power. He tightened his grip slightly and she shuddered.
"You are tired!" he said, and it hurt her that he could be so considerate.
"The killing—to end that! It's that I want!" she breathed miserably.
"And the end is near!" he said. "Yes, now, thanks to you!"
Thanks to her! And she must listen and submit to his touch!
"The engineers and material were ready to go in," he continued. "Before morning, as I had planned, we shall be so well fortified in the position that nothing can budge us. This success so strengthens my power with the staff and the premier that I need not wait on Fabian tactics. I am supreme. I shall make the most of the demoralization of this blow to the enemy. I shall not wait on slow approaches in the hope of saving life. To-morrow I shall attack and keep on attacking till all the main line is ours."