She shuddered as he spoke of the shipowner's brutal insinuations, and burst out: "It was blackmail."
"Yes, but legalized blackmail."
"You never gave in to him on that ground?"
"Listen further."
Rivière spoke of his wife's unexpected entry into the office at Leadenhall Street, and the scene that had followed when Olive and Larssen together had bent their joint wills to the task of forcing him to his knees. When he concluded on the signature wrung out of the shipowner at the last moment, Elaine cried her relief:
"Then you're not beaten down! I'm glad—I'm glad!"
On his further conversation with Olive, Rivière touched very briefly, merely indicating the terms his wife had rigidly demanded.
"And that's how the matter rests at present," he ended bitterly. "I've taken away your livelihood; and dragged your name into this unsavoury mire; and there's no finality reached.... But I'll get this tangle straightened out somehow, if I have to choke Larssen to do it!"
Rivière had strode over to the window—not to look out, because the curtains were close-drawn, but from sheer force of habit. He turned round sharply as a half-whispered question—an utterly unexpected question—came from Elaine.