“I forbid you to say anything against her.”
Susie gave a little gasp. He had never spoken to her before in anger. She flashed out bitterly.
“Can you love her still, when she’s shown herself capable of such vile treachery? For nearly a month this man must have been making love to her, and she’s listened to all we said of him. She’s pretended to hate the sight of him, I’ve seen her cut him in the street. She’s gone on with all the preparations for your marriage. She must have lived in a world of lies, and you never suspected anything because you had an unalterable belief in her love and truthfulness. She owes everything to you. For four years she’s lived on your charity. She was only able to be here because you gave her money to carry out a foolish whim, and the very clothes on her back were paid for by you.”
“I can’t help it if she didn’t love me,” he cried desperately.
“You know just as well as I do that she pretended to love you. Oh, she’s behaved shamefully. There can be no excuse for her.”
He looked at Susie with haggard, miserable eyes.
“How can you be so cruel? For God’s sake don’t make it harder.”
There was an indescribable agony in his voice. And as if his own words of pain overcame the last barrier of his self-control, he broke down. He hid his face in his hands and sobbed. Susie was horribly conscience-stricken.
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to say such hateful things. I didn’t mean to be unkind. I ought to have remembered how passionately you love her.”
It was very painful to see the effort he made to regain his self-command. Susie suffered as much as he did. Her impulse was to throw herself on her knees, and kiss his hands, and comfort him; but she knew that he was interested in her only because she was Margaret’s friend. At last he got up and, taking his pipe from his pocket, filled it silently. She was terrified at the look on his face. The first time she had ever seen him, Susie wondered at the possibility of self-torture which was in that rough-hewn countenance; but she had never dreamed that it could express such unutterable suffering. Its lines were suddenly changed, and it was terrible to look upon.