She remembered that now and she set her teeth. “Vouloir c’est pouvoir.” She had proved the saying true again and again; she must prove it true to-night. She willed her release; she would somehow obtain it.
Directly she finished the Etude she got up from the piano.
“You play that wonderfully well,” Dion said, with a sort of hard recognition of her merit, but with no enthusiasm. “Do you know that there’s something damnably competent in you?”
She stood looking down on him.
“I’m very glad there is. I don’t care to bungle what I undertake.”
“I believe I knew that the first time I saw you, standing by Echo. You held my hand that day. Do you remember?”
He laughed faintly.
“No, I don’t remember.”
“The hand of Stamboul was upon me then. By God, we are under the yoke. It was fated then that you should destroy me.”
“Destroy you?”