He laughed. She lost her temper:
“Do you intend to behave like a gentleman or like a cad?”
He turned red and clenched his fists:
“Curse you!” he hissed, in his moustache.
“Perhaps you would like to hit me and knock me about?” she continued, scornfully.
He mastered himself.
“We are in a room full of people,” she sneered, defiantly. “What if we were alone? You’ve already clenched your fists! You would thrash me as you did before. You brute! You brute!”
“And you are very brave in this room full of people!” he laughed, with his laugh which incited her to rage, when it did not subdue her. “No, I shouldn’t thrash you,” he continued. “I should kiss you.”
“This is the last time you’re going to speak to me!” she hissed furiously. “Go away! Go away! Or I don’t know what I shall do, I shall make a scene.”
He sat down calmly: