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“Why should I answer you?” she asked, helping herself to some more cream with a hand that was slightly unsteady in spite of her effort to control it. “I do not see the necessity.”

“I think you do,” he rejoined.

Nina said no more. She swallowed her tea, nibbled at a wafer with a species of deliberate trifling calculated to proclaim aloud her utter fearlessness, and at length rose to go.

In that moment her husband stepped forward and took her by the shoulders.

“Before you leave this room, please,” he said quietly.

She drew back from him in a blaze of indignant rebellion.

“I will not!” she said. “Let me go instantly!”

His hold tightened. His face was more grim than she had ever seen it. His eyes seemed to beat hers down. Yet when he spoke he did not raise his voice.

“I have borne a good deal from you, Nina,” he said. “But there is a limit to every man’s endurance.”

“You married me against my will,” she panted. “Do you think I have not had anything to endure, too?”

“That accusation is false,” he said. “You married me of your own accord. Without my money, you would have passed me by with scorn. You know it.”

She began to tremble violently.

“Do you deny that?” he insisted pitilessly.

“At least you pressed me hard,” she said.

“I did,” he replied. “I saw you meant to sell yourself. And I did not mean you to go to any scoundrel.”

“So you bought me for yourself?” she said, with a wild laugh.

“I did.” Wingarde’s voice trembled a little. “I paid your price,” he said, “and I have taken very little for it. You have offered me still less. Now, Nina, understand! This is not going on for ever. I simply will not bear it. You are my wife, sworn to obey me–and obey me you shall.”

He held her fast in front of him. She could feel the nervous strength of his hands. It thrilled her through and through. She felt like a trapped animal in his grasp. Her resistance began to waver.

“What are you going to do?” she asked.

“I am going to conquer you,” he said grimly.

“You won’t do it by violence,” she returned quickly.

Her words seemed to pierce through a weak place in the iron armour in which he had clad himself. Abruptly he set her free.

The suddenness of his action so surprised her that she tottered a little. He made a swift move towards her; but in a second she had recovered herself, and he drew back. She saw that his face was very pale.

“Are you quite sure of that?” he asked.

She did not answer him. Shaking from head to foot, she stood facing him. But words would not come.

After a desperate moment the tension was relaxed. He turned on his heel.

“Well, I have warned you,” he said, and strode heavily away.

The moment she ceased to hear his footsteps, Nina sank down into a chair and burst into tears.

VI

AN OFFER OF HELP

On the following morning Nina did not descend the stairs till she had heard the car leave the house. The strain of the previous night’s interview had told upon her. She felt that she had not the resolution to face such another.

The heat was intense. She remembered with regret that she had promised to attend a charitable bazaar in the City that afternoon. Somehow she could summon no relish either for that or the prospect of the theatre with Archie at night. She wondered whither her husband had proposed to take her, half wishing she had yielded a point to go.

She went to the bazaar, fully prepared to be bored. The first person she saw, however, was Archie, and at once the atmosphere seemed to lighten.

He attached himself to her without a moment’s delay.

“I say,” he said, “send your car back! I’ll take you home. I’ve got my hansom here. It’s much more exciting than a motor. We’ll go and have tea somewhere presently.”