She felt the check, and the color, which excitement had brought to her cheeks, faded. But she thought that it was only that he did not understand, and, “That wretched creature, as you call him,” she cried, “has just escaped from death. They were going to murder him!”
“Murder him?” Audley repeated. He raised his eyebrows. “Murder him?” coldly. “My dear girl, don’t be silly! Don’t let yourself be carried away. You’ve lost your head. And, pardon me for saying it, I am afraid have made a fool of yourself! And of me!”
“But they were going to throw him into the canal!” she protested.
“Going to wash him!” he replied cynically. “And a good thing too! It’s a pity they left the job undone. The man is a low, pestilent fellow!” he continued severely, “and obnoxious to me and to all decent people. The idea of bringing him, and that pleasant tail, to my house—my dear girl, it’s absurd!”
He made no attempt to soften his tone or suppress his annoyance, and she stared at him in astonishment. Yet she still thought, or she strove to think, that he did not understand, and tried to make the facts clear. “But you don’t know what they were like,” she protested. “You were not there. They had torn the clothes from his back——”
“I can see that.”
“And he was so terrified that it was dreadful to see him! They were handling him brutally, horribly! And then I came up and——”
“And lost your head!” he said. “I dare say you thought all this. But do you know anything about elections?”
“No——”
“Have you ever see an election in progress before?”