'I am only now come home,' she said in a low voice. 'I have done wrong; I have been out all day.'
Jean Bérarde rose to his feet unsteadily, and towered above her, a rude, savage, terrible figure; his breath, hot as the fumes of burning spirit, scorched her cheek.
'Out!' he echoed. 'Out!—without my leave? Out where?'
She looked at him without flinching. Only she was very pale.
'They came and asked me—the ladies and gentlemen—and I wished so much to go. I have never seen at all how those people live, and when I got there the hours went on, and I could not get back until he, Count Othmar, was kind enough to bring me home in his own boat, and he rowed himself all the way; and he said that it would not be right for me to hide such a thing from you, because, though I have done no harm, yet I have disobeyed you——'
She paused, having made her confession; she breathed very quickly and faintly; her eyes looked up at him with an unspoken prayer for pardon.
In answer, he lifted his arm and struck her to the ground.
CHAPTER XV.
Othmar did not see his wife on the following day until the one o'clock breakfast, and then saw her surrounded with her friends.