"Thank you, Williams, but I am afraid I must disturb him for a few moments."
Williams went on his way, wondering what was the matter with his young mistress.
"She looked like a person as has been taking some of them deadly poisons," he remarked at the servants' tea, and Williams was very near the truth, for the action of all fierce anger is to distil a corroding poison within ourselves, which infects the whole current of the blood.
When the girl entered the study the Rector was sitting at his desk, by the far window, sheets of manuscript paper lying before him. He looked up, as the door opened, and when he saw who it was that had entered his eyebrows contracted, and he made an authoritative gesture for her to withdraw.
But Regina advanced steadily, with the grim, remorseless step of the hunting beast of prey. When she was close to the desk she stopped. Her eyes glittered in the deadly white of her face.
"Was it you who tore up my paintings?"
Unconsciously, the Rector looked round for help or assistance. Some primitive, physical instinct warned him he was near death at that moment, though such a thought never came near his mind. His eyes came back from their search round the empty room and from the far-off bell. He fidgeted with his pen, and then said nervously:
"You see, Regina, I have to think of your moral good ... I ... er, can't let things go on in my house of which I ... ah ... of which my conscience does not approve."
"Then that means you did destroy them?"
She was very near the desk now, the waning light of the afternoon fell upon her face. The Rector thought he had never seen such a terrible look of rage on any countenance before. It was truly shocking.... These human passions were really dreadful, when you came face to face with them.