Striving to conceal her agitation, she said, as quietly as she could:—
"I cannot give you that, Bernard; such manifestations on your part, you should remember, belong to your wife and child."
"And isn't the mother of my boy my wife? and did you not just confess you were his mother?"
"In the absence of his rightful mother, I have striven to fill her place; and if you choose to look upon me in such a light, show me the respect which is my due. Leave my room, sir!"
"By Jove, girl, you are saucy; come here, and sit upon my knee. You're a little wrathful just now, but all the prettier for that. Come."
Minny rose up, with her face ashy pale, and stood in her calm womanly dignity before him.
"Are you not ashamed to show a defenceless woman
such an outrage, in your own house? I have seen the time when Bernard Wilkins would have scorned so cowardly an act as this."
"That was when he had drank less wine, and lost less gold; come, there is no use in parleying, come here by me."
He started forward, and grasping her rudely by the wrist, drew her toward him.