is arm with the words.

The touch fired him. He considered that he had been patient long
enough. Abruptly he caught her to him.

"Come, I say," he said, half-laughing, half in savage earnest, "I can't
have you crying on what's almost our wedding trip!"

He certainly did not expect the absolutely furious resistance with which
she met his action. She thrust him from her with the strength of frenzy.

"How dare you?" she cried passionately. "How dare you touch me, you--you
hateful cad?"

For the moment, such was his astonishment, he suffered her to escape
from his hold. Then, called into activity by her unreasoning fury, the
devil in him leapt suddenly up and took possession. With a snarling
laugh he gripped her by the arms, holding her by brutal force.

"You little wild cat!" he said in a voice that shook between anger and
amusement. "So this is your gratitude, is it? I am to give all and
receive nothing for my pains. Then let me make it quite clear to you
here and now that that is not my intention. I will be kind to you, but
you must be kind to me, too. The benefit is to be mutual."

It was premature. In his heart he knew it, but she had provoked him to
it and there was no turning back now. He resented the provocation, that
was all, and it made him the more brutally inclined towards her.

As for Doris, she fought and tore at his grasp like a mad creature; and
when he mastered her, when, still laughing between his teeth, he forced
her face upwards and kissed it fiercely and violently, she shrieked
between his kisses, shrieked and shrieked again.

The sudden grinding of the brake recalled Brandon to his senses. The
fool was actually stopping the car. He relinquished his hold upon the
girl to dash his hand against the window in front.

"Drive on, curse you, drive on!" he shouted through the glass. "I'll let
you know if we want to stop."

But the car stopped in spite of him. The chauffeur, shining from head to
foot in his oil-skins, sprang to the ground. A moment and he was at the
door, had wrenched it open, and was peering within.

"What are you gaping there for, you fool?" raved Brandon, his hand upon
Doris, who was suddenly straining forward. "It's all right, I tell you.
Go on."

"I am going on," the chauffeur responded calmly through his mask. "But I
am not taking you any farther, Major Brandon. So tumble out at once, you
dirty, thieving hound!"

The words, the tone, the attitude, flashed such a revelation