stant's hesitation
she flung down the gauntlet.

"It is true," she said, speaking quickly, "that I married you for your
money, but since you knew that, you were as much to blame as I. Had I
known then what sort of man you were, I would sooner have gone into the
workhouse. I am quite aware that it is thanks to you that my father is
not a ruined man, but I--I protest against being made the price for your
benefits. I will never touch another penny of your money myself, and
neither shall any of my family if I can prevent it. As to abiding by my
bargain, I refuse absolutely and unconditionally. I do not acknowledge
your authority over me. I will be no man's slave, and--and, sooner than
live with you as your wife, I--I will die in a ditch!"

Furiously she flung the words at him, too much carried away by her own
madness to note their effect upon him, too angry to see the sudden,
leaping flame in his eyes; too utterly reckless to realize that fire
kindles fire.

Her fierce wrath was in its way sublime. She was like a beautiful, wild
creature raging at its captor, too infuriated to be afraid.

"I defy you," she declared proudly, "to make me do anything against my
will!"

There was scorn as well as defiance in her voice--scorn because he stood
before her so silently; scorn because the fierce torrent of her anger had
flowed unchecked. She had only to stand up to him, it seemed, and like
the giant of the fable he dwindled to a pigmy. She was no longer hurt by
his passivity. She despised him for it.

But it was for the last time in her life. As she turned contemptuously to
pick up her cloak, he moved.

With a single stride he had reached her, and in an instant his hand was
on her arm, his face was close to hers. And then she saw, what she had
been too self-engrossed to see before, that fire had kindled fire indeed,
and that those rash words of hers had waked the savage in him.

She made a sharp, instinctive effort to free herself, but he held her
fast. She had outrun his patience at last.

"So," he said, "you defy me, do you? You defy me to take what is my own?
That is not very wise of you."

He spoke under his breath, and as he spoke he drew her to him suddenly,
violently, with a strength that was brutal. For a moment his eyes
compelled hers, terrible eyes alight with a passion that scorched her
with its fiery intensity. And then abruptly his arms tightened. She was
at his mercy, and he did not spare her. Savagely, fier