'You are more cruel than I; you hurt me more than I can say.'
He resisted his impulse to renounce his words, to pretend that he had chosen them in deliberate malice. As he said nothing, she added,—
'Besides, have I ever shown myself any of those things to you? I haven't been cruel to you; I haven't even been selfish; you have no right to find fault with me.'
She had blundered; he flew into a rage.
'Your damned feminine reasoning! Your damned personal point of view! I can see well enough the fashion in which you treat other men. I don't judge you only by your attitude towards myself.'
Off her guard, she was really incapable of grasping his argument; she tried to insist, to justify herself, but before his storm of anger she cowered away.
'Julian, how you frighten me.'
'You only pretend to be frightened.'
'You are brutal; you mangle every word I say,' she said hopelessly.