Barney threw a swift glance round the room, crossed to a side table, and picked up a Bible lying there. He turned the leaves rapidly and handed it to his brother with his finger upon a verse.
“Read!” he said. “You know your Bible. Read!” His voice was terrible and compelling in its calmness.
Following the pointing finger, Dick's eyes fell upon words that seemed to sear his eyeballs as he read, “Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” Heart-smitten, Dick stood without a word.
“I could kill you now,” said the quiet, terrible voice. “But what need? To me you are already dead.”
When Dick looked up his brother had gone. Nerveless, broken, he sank into a chair and sat with his face in his hands. Beside him stood Iola, pale, rigid, her eyes distended as if she had seen a horrid vision. She was the first to recover.
“Dick,” she said softly, laying her hand upon his head.
He sprang up as if her fingers had been red-hot iron and had burned to the bone.
“Don't touch me!” he cried in vehement frenzy. “You are a devil! And I am in hell! In hell! do you hear?” He caught her by the arm and shook her. “And I deserve hell! Hell! Hell! Fools! no hell?” He turned again to her. “And for you, for this, and this, and this,” touching her hair, her cheek, and her heaving bosom with his finger, “I have lost my brother—my brother—my own brother—Barney. Oh, fool that I am! Damned! Damned! Damned!”
She shrank back from him, then whispered with pale lips, “Oh, Dick, spare me! Take me home!”
“Yes, yes,” he cried in mad haste, “anywhere, in the devil's name! Come! Come!” He seized her wrap, threw it upon her shoulders, caught up his hat, tore open the door for her, and followed her out.