Mendel gripped the banisters with both hands and shook them until they cracked.
“How horrible!” he muttered to himself; “how horrible!”
Upstairs, Clowes was boiling with rage. She lost all interest in her young man, and as soon as Mendel had returned to the room she raced downstairs, almost sobbing, and saying to herself:—
“That settles you, Master Kühler! That settles you!”
She darted across to Morrison, who had taken refuge in a corner, seized her by the hand and whispered:—
“Greta! Greta! I’ve just heard the most frightful thing. I couldn’t help overhearing it and I ought not to tell anybody, but you ought to know. Kühler and Petrie! It must have been going on for months. He broke with her in the most cold-blooded way. It was heart-rending. I can’t bear it. Oh! these men, these men!”
Morrison clenched her fists and her eyes blazed.
“Don’t tell me any more!” she said. “Don’t tell me any more!”
“I want to go home,” whispered Clowes. “It is a dreadful party. That awful green woman spoils everything. It is like a nightmare to me now.