"What should I have done?" he asked, and was conscious of a wry amusement. Beneath the surface their wills grappled together. She was so small, so strong. He would be so utterly beaten.
"I don't know—You didn't even wait for her to bow. It's not for me to dictate—surely it wasn't necessary to know her—she's outside the pale—and that man—oh, it was sickening, horrible——!"
Her voice quivered. He put his arm about her shoulders,
"Did you want me to—to cut them?" he asked.
"Why not? I think it would have been better to do what we must do right from the beginning. We can't know them, Tris."
"I must," he responded deliberately.
He felt her whole body stiffen.
"Why?" Her voice was very low now, subdued so as to cover its real timbre. "Why?" she repeated.
"Because I have no reason not to," he returned.
"A half-caste and an adventuress——"