Venna gave a hard little laugh.
"What about your duty toward the other women?" she asked coldly.
"I don't understand you," he replied angrily. "If you are going to play censor with me, young lady, you have the wrong party. I've been frank with you, which every man is not, and you return it with rudeness."
Without a word Venna quietly arose and left the room.
"Well, if women aren't incorrigible!" he exclaimed in disgust, lighting a cigarette to calm his perturbed thoughts.
Venna sought her own room, dismayed at her state of mind. She felt as though some one had roughly shaken her and awakened her from the dream of one world to the stern realities of another.
With the awakening came an alarming disgust and hatred for her husband. She stood alone, reasoning, struggling with her new thoughts. Her ideas, at first confused, began to shape themselves definitely and bitterly. Three hours later she came from her room, a pale, determined woman.
When she calmly informed Hadly that from then on they would be as entire strangers, his first sensation of genuine surprise gave way to angry fear.
"You're not going to make fools of both of us, are you? What on earth are you making such a fuss about? Are you looking for a divorce? You can't get one. I'll tell you that right now. And your business affairs are tight in my hands, so don't try to be too independent."
"You refuse to let me go?" asked Venna, pale but unwavering.