The twelve thousand pounds had melted like morning mist. She could scarcely remember what they had gone for; but the bitter insult remained, would remain, she thought, with her for ever.
He rose and stood before her. “Well?” he said gently.
“You have a right to your money, I suppose,” she said sullenly between her set teeth. “I have no notion on earth how to get you a farthing, but if you will wait a month and not speak to my brother in the interval, I will—I will see what I can do.”
Beaumont bowed.
“I will wait six months and I will speak to no one. But if at the end of six months I do not receive all, I shall speak, with pain, madame, but inevitably not to your brother but to the world.”
“I understand,” she said haughtily. “You will do your worst. Well, never enter my presence again, that is all; and leave it now this moment.”
Beaumont smiled with admiration and regret combined.
“You are very unwise, madame. If you had not been rude to me I would have accorded you a year. Mais on chasse de race.”
She knew that it was unwise to be so insolent, but she could not have made herself polite to him to save her life. He punished her for having tricked him and flouted her. He was a very rich man and she had offended him.
She saw her mistake, but she would not have resisted repeating it if he had come back into the room. Women always bring temper into business, and that is why they fail in it so frequently, for those who do not bring temper bring sentiment, and the one is as ruinous as the other.