! That's why I'm going to see
if I can with my handsome dago."

Loring's reply to this had been to seize her by one arm and jerk her to
her feet before him.

"My bracelet! You hurt me...." she had murmured. He released her arm,
and she stood nursing it against her breast, thrusting out her red lips
over it, saying, "There! there!" to it as if it had been a baby.

"I don't believe I hurt it an atom.... Let me see," he had demanded. She
made him furious--furious with desire and detestation. He loathed her
roguery and wiles, yet they mastered him just as drink did.

"Let me see," he said again, putting out his hand towards her arm.

She yielded it to him with a languid movement, so that it hung a warm,
white weight in his grasp.

"There...." she said, pressing her forefinger into the soft flesh.

It was then that he had set that violent kiss upon it. His lips clung,
drew at the delicate, supple texture. The girl leaned against him half
swooning with the delight of his hot lips upon the coolness of her bare
arm.

She didn't care in the least when, coming to himself again, he flung
away her arm as though it had been a bit of trash.

"Go to bed," he had said roughly between his teeth. "Go to bed and say
your prayers ... you need 'em...."

She had stood laughing softly, as he strode off after Amaldi, towards
the house. She didn't mind his rudenesses because she knew of old that
reaction was sure to follow. He was too good-tempered and easy-going in
his normal state to keep up this savage mood with her. He was only cross
like this when he'd "had too much." And the more brutal he was at such
times, the more apt he was to make up for it by being "nice" afterwards.
She had had some experience of these moods in him even as a schoolgirl.

In fact, the next day Loring, rather ashamed of the hazy memory that he
retained of that scene on the terrace, was very "nice" to her indeed. He
proposed a ride together. This was the beginning of delightful rides
alone with him.

Sophy had given up both riding and dancing for the past two or three
weeks. The truth was that she had not felt very well of late. The
constant, hopeless sense of defeat, of a wearing situation from which
she could see no means of extricating herself, had begun to affect her
body. This sensation of physical weariness was new to her. Always, until
now, her strong, elastic physique had resisted triumphantly. But
nowadays she felt jaded. Everything seemed an ef