“But he continued to stare at her as though she had been an apparition, muttering incomprehensibly, and passing his hand with a wild gesture over his hair.
“‘What’s the matter, Rawdon?’ she said, genuinely puzzled.
“At that he cried out,—
“‘Oh, go away, leave me alone, for God’s sake leave me alone!’ and he began to sob hysterically, hiding his face in his sheets.
“Afraid that he would wake the children, she backed hastily out, shutting the door, and flying downstairs to her own room.
“He did not come to breakfast, but at midday he appeared, white and hollow-eyed, and climbed to his room, where he spent an hour screwing a bolt on to the inside of his door. When he came down again, he tried to slip furtively out of the house, but she stopped him in the passage.
“‘Look here, Rawdon,’ she said, taking him by the shoulders, ‘what’s the matter with you?’
“He shrank miserably under her touch.
“‘There’s nothing the matter,’ he mumbled.
“Then he spoke in a tone she had never heard since the days before their marriage, a cringing, whining tone.