Lotte seemed to feel that she should fall into an hysterical paroxysm if this interview were to be prolonged. Yet her pride would not suffer her to yield, or to make an observation which would take the form of an admission either for or against herself.
“I shall be at home,” she observed, laconically.
“Which is to imply that he may come or remain away at his own inclining?” said Mark between his teeth.
She bowed her head without reply.
He gave one wild glance at her.
“Guilty and hardened!” he muttered, and rushed from the room.
She sank half-lifeless upon the sofa.
Mark, with furious haste, made his way to the office of Lotte’s brother, and with a kind of incoherent burst of strange remarks, informed him that he had had an interview with his sister.
“Did she say she wished to see me?” inquired Charley, with a full certainty of an affirmative reply.
“No,” returned Mark, shortly.