"Why are you sending Guy away?" she asked. "Is it to avert danger from yourself?" There was scorn in her tone. Hora made no attempt to avert the threatened emotional storm.
"Have I ever feared danger?" he asked sneeringly.
"I've never known you to face it. I don't know anything about your feelings," she replied.
Hora looked at her. She had never dared so to speak to him before, and he knew that she must be greatly moved to so provoke his anger.
"You know nothing," he replied calmly. "A woman is utterly unable to comprehend a masculine point of view."
"A woman cannot live in the same house with a man and fail to know something of his character, and I know something of yours, Commandatore."
He shrugged his shoulders in amused surprise.
"You find me an interesting study, Myra?" he drawled. He could not have said anything more calculated to arouse Myra's tempestuous spirit.
"Interesting?" she exclaimed. "I don't know about that. You don't interest me in the least. I—I—hate you."
"Dear me!" replied Hora equably. "I might have expected you to do so. Perhaps I have, for there's undoubtedly wisdom in the suggestion that one does not pluck figs from thistles, though the saying is somewhat hackneyed."