“What do I mean?” repeated Leila; “I mean what I say; and if you don't understand it you can find the key to it, I fancy. Nor shall I answer to you for my guests. I invite whom I choose. Mr. Siward is one, Mr. Plank is another. Sylvia, if you care to come I shall be delighted.”
“I do care to come,” said Sylvia. Her heart was beating violently, her eyes were on Quarrier.
“If you go,” said Quarrier, showing the glimmering edge of teeth under his beard, “you will answer to me for it.”
“I will answer you now, Howard; I am going with Mrs. Mortimer. What have you to say?”
“I'll say it to-morrow,” he replied, contemplating her in a dull, impassive manner as though absorbed in other things.
“Say what there is to be said now!” she insisted, the hot colour staining her cheeks again. “Do you desire me to free you? Is that all? I will if you wish.”
“No. And I shall not free you, Sylvia. This—all this can be adjusted in time.”
“As you please,” she said slowly.
“In time,” he repeated, his passionless voice now under perfect control. He turned and looked at Leila; all the wickedness of his anger was concentrated in his gaze. Then he took his leave of them as formally, as precisely as though he had forgotten the whole scene; and a minute later the big Mercedes ran out into a half-circle, backed, wheeled, and rolled away through the thickening dusk, the glare of the acetylenes sweeping the deserted street.
Into the twilight sped Quarrier, head bent, but his soft, dark-lashed eyes of a woman fixed steadily ahead. Every energy, every thought was now bent to this newest phase of the same question which he and Fate were finding simpler to solve every minute. Of all the luxuries he permitted himself openly or furtively, one—the rarest of them all—his self-denial had practically eliminated from the list: the luxury of punishing where no end was served save that of mere personal satisfaction. The temptation of this luxury now presented itself; and the means of gratification were so simple, so secret, so easy to command, that the temptation became almost a duty.