“Leo—Hartley,” she said, in a low, pained voice: “come here.”
“I am sent to bed,” said Leo mockingly; and she was passing on, but Salis caught her by the arm and checked her. Then he led her to the far end of the room before returning to close the door and help Mary to her couch.
“I can speak now,” he said, in a low voice full of passion, but at the same time well under control. “Where have you been?”
“Hartley!” said Mary appealingly.
“Hush, my child,” he replied. “I know what I am saying. I wish to avoid the scandal of this being known to the servants, but your position and mine demand an explanation. Leo Salis, where have you been?”
She turned her handsome, defiant face towards where he stood, and now it was beginning; to be visible in the soft dawn, pale, fierce, and implacable as that of one who has recklessly set every law at defiance and is ready to dare all.
“Where have I been?” she said. “Out!”
“I insist upon a proper reply to my question. I say, where have you been?”
“There!” she cried; “there is no need to fence. You know where I have been?”
“To meet that man Candlish, after promising me that your intercourse with him should be at an end; and, to make things worse, you have stolen from the house in this disgraceful, clandestine way.”