She started to reply, hesitated and was silent.
He saw his advantage and pressed it:
"I want you to understand fully that I know now and I have always known that I am at your mercy when you see fit to break the word you pledged. Yet there has never been a moment during the past twenty years that I've been really afraid of you. When the hour comes for my supreme humiliation, I'll meet it. Speak as soon as you like."
She had walked calmly to the door, paused and looked back:
"You needn't worry, major," she said smoothly, "I'm not quite such a fool as all that. I've been silent too many years. It's a habit I'll not easily break." Her white teeth gleamed in a cold smile as she added:
"Good night."
A hundred times he told himself that she wouldn't dare, but he left home next lay with a sickening fear slowly stealing into his heart.