“I’ll get even for this one day. . . . I’ll make him crawl. . . . Red-hot irons are too good for that——”
“But, Aunt Agatha——”
Patricia was full of questions, and it seemed the right moment to let some of them off, but Miss Girton turned on her like a wild beast, and the girl recoiled a step from the blaze of fury in those smouldering eyes.
“Go away.”
“Was that the man who’s been blackmailing you?”
“Go away.”
“And is he the Tiger?”
Miss Girton took a pace forward and pointed to the door.
“Leave me, child,” she said in a terrible voice. “Go back to your Saint before I forget—— If you aren’t outside in a second I’ll throw you out.”
She meant it. Patricia had never seen and hoped she would never see again the face of a woman so contorted with passion. There was nothing to do.