“Marya–––”
“Yes or no! Allez!”
“My God, are––are you then demented?” he faltered.
“My God, I’m not,” she mimicked him, “but I can’t answer for what I might do to you if you hang around this apartment any longer.”
She came slowly toward him, her hands bracketed on her hips, her strange eyes narrowing.
“Listen to me,” she said. “I have loved many times. 332 But never you! One doesn’t love your kind. One experiments, possibly, if idle.
“A man died to-day whom I loved; but was too stupid to love enough. Perhaps he knows now how stupid I am.... Unless they blew his soul to pieces, also. Allez! Good-night. I tell you I have business to attend to, and you stand there rolling your woman’s eyes at me!–––”
“Damn you!” he said between his teeth. “What is the matter with you–––”
He had caught her arm; she wrenched it free, tearing the sleeve to her naked shoulder.
Then she went to her desk and took a pistol from an upper drawer.