Checking the harsh laugh which rose to his lips and unable longer to contain himself, Storm sprang up and paced the floor. Brewster’s happiness would be of short duration; his hour was over! Softly, under his breath, Storm began to curse them both with horrible, meaningless curses; blood surged to his temples, pounded in his ears. A lurid red mist rose before his eyes, blinding him so that he staggered, stumbling against the furniture in his path. He, Norman Storm, had been flouted, betrayed; and by that smiling, lying, corrupt creature there beneath his roof whom he had trusted, idolized!
All at once through the roaring in his ears he heard his name called in wondering accents and turned. The door had opened, and Leila stood before him; a pale and trembling Leila, with wide, apprehensive eyes.
“Norman! When did you come in? Why do you look at me so strangely? What has happened?”
The mist cleared before him, the leaping blood was stilled as though a cold hand had tightened about his temples, and in a voice of dangerous calm he replied: “A great deal has happened. For one thing, I have found you out, my dear!”
“ ‘Found me out?’ ” she repeated advancing toward him in sheer wonderment. “Norman, what do you mean?”
“I returned home somewhat earlier than you expected, did I not?” He smiled, but the light in his eyes grew steely. “A trite, time-worn trick of the deceived husband, I admit, but it served! You thought yourself secure, didn’t you? Or perhaps you gave no thought whatever to my possible intrusion; you fancied you had sufficiently pulled the wool over my eyes to blind me indefinitely?”
“Deceived husband!” Her voice had sunk to a whisper of incredulous horror. “You cannot know what you are saying, Norman. You must be mad!”
“On the contrary, I have never known a saner moment. My madness lay in trusting you as I have all these years, loving you with an idolatry which could conceive of no wrong.”
“But I—I have done no wrong——”
“Don’t lie now!” he cried harshly. “Can’t you realize that it will avail you nothing, that it did not deceive me even yesterday? And to-night I come home and find your lover here beneath my roof thanking you for the happiest hour of his life!”