“No—never!”
“But you say he has written to you.”
“Yes. When he left Fanny he wrote a letter in the hotel and had it sent up to my room. Fanny gave it me just now. I’ve got it here.”
She drew a letter out of a little bag she had brought with her.
“I—I can’t show it—”
“Oh—please—I don’t want to see it!” said Lady Sellingworth, with an irrepressible shrinking of disgust.
“No, of course not. Adela, please don’t think I imagined you did! But I must tell you—I know you hate all this. You must hate it. Oh, do forgive me for coming here! I know I oughtn’t to. But I’m afraid—I’m afraid of him!”
“Why are you so afraid? What can he do?”
“A man like that might do anything!”
“Are you sure? I think such a man is probably a coward at heart.”