Deleah was frightened, but she was angry too: "Just for the minute I think
I do."
"All the same, hating me, will you marry me, and come to live in the house
I have made for you?"
"No," said Deleah, pale and suddenly breathless. "I won't!"
He listened, panting as if from long running; his chest laboured beneath the grip of his folded arms as if it must burst. For a long minute he glared at her, speechless; and Deleah, glaring back at him wondered was this man with the working, ashen face really their decorous boarder, who had been so assiduous in passing the mustard and pouring out the water? What had come to him? Had she done this? Did he mean to kill her?
He came slowly nearer to her, and it took all the girl's courage to hold up her head, to face him. "I understand, at last," he said. "Now I want you to understand too. So listen to me; and remember; and see if I lie. You belong to me. Never mind what you feel about it. You are mine. You belong to me. Do you hear me?"
"I hear you, Mr. Gibbon."
"Say it after me."
"I will not."
"You belong to me. Belong to me. Belong to me. And while I live you shall belong to no one else."
He turned round then, and unlocked the door. But as she, with a haste which was hardly dignified, would have passed him there, he threw his arms around her, and pulled her fiercely to him, and madly kissed her face.