I
cannot leave you to hear it from others."

He helped her out of her wrap and she threw the lace scarf on a chair and
preceded him slowly down the hall.

"I am a coward. A coward," she thought heavily. "Have I ever felt moral
cowardice before? I don't remember. Not toward any other man who loved
me. But---- Oh, God! And I shall never see him again. How shall I
begin?"

She was totally unprepared for the beginning. She heard him shut the
library door, and then it seemed to her that her entire body was
encircled by flexible hot bars of iron and her face, her mouth, were
being flagellated. If he hadn't held her in that vise-like grip she
would have fallen. She lay back on his arm as he kissed her and for the
moment she forgot the past and the future and was happy, although she
felt dimly that life was being drained out of her. She was passive in
that fierce possessive embrace. She had lost all sense of separateness.

"I won't listen to your story," he muttered. "This is no time for talk."

His voice, hoarse and shaking as it was, broke the spell; with a sudden
lithe movement she twisted herself out of his arms. Before he realized
what was happening she had run across the room, snatched the key from the
door and locked it on the other side. He heard her run up the stairs.

Clavering did and said most of the things men do and say when balked in
mid-flight, but in a moment he took the little key from the drawer in the
table and poured himself out a whiskey and soda--he had taken almost
nothing at the party--lit a cigarette and threw himself into a chair. He
had no desire to stride up and down; he felt as if all the strength had
gone out of him. But he felt no apprehension that she had left him for
the night. Nor should he take possession of her again until she had told
her story: he reflected with what humor was left in him that when a woman
had something to say and was determined to say it, the only thing to do
was to let her talk. Words to a woman were as steam to a boiler, and no
man could control her mind until she had talked off the lid.

She was giving him time to cool off, he reflected grimly, as he glanced
at the clock. Well, he felt heavy and inert enough--hideous reaction!
He was in a condition to listen to anything. If she was determined to
work her will on him, at least he had worked his on her for a brief
moment. She knew now that in the future she might as well try to resist
death