He released her roughly, so that she fell against a table.
“You dirty little beast!” he cried.
Mrs. Castillyon’s breath came quickly. She felt about to faint, and steadied herself against the table; she was trembling still with the pain she had suffered; her shoulders ached from the violence of his bands. He faced her, looking as though even now he scarcely understood what she had said; he passed his hands over his face wearily.
“And yet I loved you with all my heart; I did everything I could to make you happy.” Suddenly he remembered something. “The other night when you kissed me and said we must come closer together, what did you mean?”
“I’d just broken with Reggie for ever,” she gasped.
He laughed savagely.
“You didn’t come back to me till he’d thrown you over.”
She stepped forward, but he put out his hands to prevent her.
“For God’s sake, don’t come near me, or I shall hit you.”
She stopped dead, and for a moment they confronted one another strangely. Then again he passed his hands across his face, as though he wished to push away some horrible thing before him.