“You love me indeed!” said Pet, contemptuously; “I don’t see what awful crime any of my forefathers have ever done, that I’m compelled to stand up here, like patience on a monument, and listen to such stuff as that. I won’t listen to it! I’ll go and call that woman, I declare I will, and make her pack you off with a flea in your ear.”
“Not so fast, my pretty one,” said Garnet, with his usual cold smile, as he put out his long arms and caught hold of Pet; “Madame Marguerite has gone away, and may not be back to-night. The men have all gone, too, but one, and he is lying under the table out there, dead drunk. How now, my little flame of fire? Does this damp your courage any?”
For the first time, the conviction that she was completely in his power thrilled through the heart of Pet, making her, for one moment, almost dizzy with nameless apprehension. But the mocking, exulting eyes of his everywhere bent tauntingly upon her, and the high spirit of the brave girl flashed indignantly up; and, fixing her flashing black eyes full on his face, she answered, boldly:
“No, it doesn’t! Damp my courage, forsooth! Do you really suppose I am afraid of you, Rozzel Garnet? of you, the most arrant, white-livered coward God ever afflicted the earth with! Ha! ha! why, if you think so, you are a greater fool than even I ever took you to be.”
His teeth closed with a spasmodic snap; he half rose, in his fierce rage, to his feet, as he hissed:
“Girl, take care! tempt me not too far, lest I make you feel what it is to taunt me beyond endurance!”
“Barking dogs seldom bite, Mr. Garnet; little snarling curs, never.”
“By heaven, girl, I will strangle you if you do not stop!” he shouted, springing fiercely to his feet.
She took one step back, laid her hand on a carving-knife that had been on the table since dinner-time, and looked up in his face with a deriding smile.
In spite of himself, her dauntless spirit and bold daring struck him with admiration. He looked at her for a moment, inwardly wondering that so brave and fierce a spirit could exist in a form so slight and frail, and then, with a long breath, he sunk back into his seat.