“No! Never!” he said firmly.
“You were in love with her, and she with you. I’m certain of it. And it is still going on.”
He shrugged his shoulders, but as he was about to defend the young girl, Josephine broke in:
“I don’t want to hear anything more about it. You’re warned, and it’s just as well. I’m not going out of my way to look for her, but if she ever crosses my path—all the worse for her.”
“And all the worse for you, if you touch a hair of her head!” he exclaimed imprudently.
She paled. Her lips quivered, and laying her hand on his neck, she stammered: “You dare to take her part against me ... against me!”
Her hand, very cold, contracted. He had the impression that she was going to strangle him and sprang out of bed. In her turn she was alarmed, thinking that he was going to strike her, and snatched from her bodice a little dagger with gleaming blade.
In these attitudes of attack they stared into one another’s eyes, and it was so painful that Ralph murmured:
“Oh, Josine, what a pity it is that it should have come to this!”
No less moved, she sank into a chair, and he threw himself at her feet.