“Well,” she asked at last, with an air of mingled defiance and sarcasm. “And what more?”
“Nothing. I have finished. I have only to wish you adieu.”
“Then you really intend to abandon me?” she asked very gravely, her small hand trembling.
“I have already explained my intentions. They were quite clear, I think.”
“And you decline to reconsider them?”
“They admit of no reconsideration,” he answered briefly.
“Very well then, adieu,” she said in a cold and bitter voice, for in those few moments her manner had changed, and she was now a frigid, imperious woman with a heart of stone.
“Adieu, Claudia,” he said, bending with a stiff courtliness over the hand she had extended to him. “You will one day see that this step of mine has saved us both from degradation and ruin. Good-bye. Recollect that even though we are apart, I remain still, as I have ever been, your devoted friend.”
Her hand dropped limply from his grasp as she stood there like a beautiful statue in the centre of the room. With a final glance at her he turned and walked straight out.
For a moment after the door had closed, she still remained in the same position in which he had left her. Then, in a sudden frenzy of uncontrollable passion, she hooked her nervous fingers in her chiffons and tore them into shreds.