“Haven’t you loved her? Have you hurt her?” asked Joan.
“God knows I have loved her. I have never hurt her—consciously. Even she cannot think that I have.”
“Why must she blame me? Why do I have to be brought into this, Mr. Morena? Can’t she go away from you? Why do the lawyers have to take it up? You are unhappy, and I am so sorry. But you wouldn’t want her to stay if—if she doesn’t love you?”
“I want her. I mean to keep her or—break her.” He turned his back to say this and went toward the window. Joan, fascinated, watched his fingers working into one another, tightening, crushing. “It’s another man she wants,” he said hoarsely, “and if I can prevent it, she shall not have him. I will force her to keep her vows to me—force her. If it kills her, I’ll break this passion, this fancy. I’ll have her back—” He wheeled round, showing a twitching face. “I’ll prove her infidelity whether she’s been unfaithful or not, and then I’ll take her back, after the world has given her one of its names—”
“You don’t love her,” said Joan, very white. “You want to brand her.”
“By God!” swore the Jew, “and I will brand her. I’ll brand her.”
He fumbled in his pocket and brought out the small envelope Woodward Kane had handed to him the day before. He stood turning the letter about in his hands as though some such meaningless occupation was a necessity to him. Joan’s eyes, falling upon the letter, widened and fixed.
“She has written to me,” said Jasper. “She wants her liberty. She wants it in such a way that she will fly clear and I—yes, and you, too, will be left in the mud. There’s a man somewhere, of course. She thinks she has evidence, witnesses against me. I don’t know what rubbish she has got together. But I’m going to fight her. I’m going to win. I’ll save you if I can, Jane; if not, of course I am at your service for any amends—”
He stopped in his halting speech, for Joan had stood up and was moving across the room, her eyes fastened on the letter in his hands. She had the air of a sleep-walker.
She opened a drawer of her desk, took out an old tin box, once used for tobacco, and drew forth a small, gray envelope torn in two. Then she came back to him and said, “Let me see that letter,” and he obeyed as though she had the right to ask.