but a blow. Her face half recalled
him to his senses.

'Where are you going?' he stammered.

'Anywhere, anywhere, away from this house and from you!' Adela replied.
Effort to command herself was vain; his heavy hand had completed the
effect of his language, and she, too, spoke as nature impelled her. 'Let
me pass! I would rather die than remain here!'

'All the same, you'll stay where you are!'

'Yes, your strength is greater than mine. You can hold me by force. But
you have insulted me beyond forgiveness, and we are as much strangers
as if we had never met. You have broken every bond that bound me to you.
You can make me your prisoner, but like a prisoner my one thought will
be of escape. I will touch no food whilst I remain here. I have no
duties to you, and you no claim upon me!'

'All the same, you stay!'

Before her sobbing vehemence he had grown calm. These words were so
unimaginable on her lips that he could make no reply save stubborn
repetition of his refusal. And having uttered that he went from the
room, changing the key to the outside and locking her in. Fear lest he
might be unable to withhold himself from laying hands upon her was the
cause of his retreat. The lust of cruelty was boiling in him, as once
or twice before. Her beauty in revolt made a savage of him. He went into
the bedroom and there waited.

Adela sat alone, sobbing still, but tearless. Her high-spirited nature
once thoroughly aroused, it was some time before she could reason on
what had come to pass. The possibility of such an end to her miseries
had never presented itself even in her darkest hours; endurance was all
she could ever look forward to. As her blood fell into calmer flow she
found it hard to believe that she had not dreamt this scene of agony.
She looked about the room. There on the table were the vegetables she
had been preparing; her hands bore the traces of the work she had done
this morning. It seemed as though she had only to rise and go on with
her duties as usual.

Her arm was painful, just below the shoulder. Yes, that was where he had
seized her with his hard hand to push her away from the door.

What had she said in her distraction? She had broken away from him,
and repudiated her wifehood. Was it not well done? If he believed her
unfaithful to him--

At an earlier period of her married life such a charge would have held
her mute with horror. Its effect now was not quite the same; she could
face the thought