mash! The sound rose louder than the
screams inside.

Smash! The chair creaked and almost broke, but the door did not give.

Smash! The chair broke and the door flew open. He had knocked the lock
loose and had leaped in to where Aileen, kneeling over Rita on the
floor, was choking and beating her into insensibility. Like an animal
he was upon her.

"Aileen," he shouted, fiercely, in a hoarse, ugly, guttural voice, "you
fool! You idiot--let go! What the devil's the matter with you? What are
you trying to do? Have you lost your mind?--you crazy idiot!"

He seized her strong hands and ripped them apart. He fairly dragged
her back, half twisting and half throwing her over his knee, loosing
her clutching hold. She was so insanely furious that she still
struggled and cried, saying: "Let me at her! Let me at her! I'll teach
her! Don't you try to hold me, you dog! I'll show you, too, you
brute--oh--"

"Pick up that woman," called Cowperwood, firmly, to Sohlberg and the
butler, who had entered. "Get her out of here quick! My wife has gone
crazy. Get her out of here, I tell you! This woman doesn't know what
she's doing. Take her out and get a doctor. What sort of a hell's
melee is this, anyway?"

"Oh," moaned Rita, who was torn and fainting, almost unconscious from
sheer terror.

"I'll kill her!" screamed Aileen. "I'll murder her! I'll murder you
too, you dog! Oh"--she began striking at him--"I'll teach you how to
run around with other women, you dog, you brute!"

Cowperwood merely gripped her hands and shook her vigorously,
forcefully.

"What the devil has got into you, anyway, you fool?" he said to her,
bitterly, as they carried Rita out. "What are you trying to do,
anyway--murder her? Do you want the police to come in here? Stop your
screaming and behave yourself, or I'll shove a handkerchief in your
mouth! Stop, I tell you! Stop! Do you hear me? This is enough, you
fool!" He clapped his hand over her mouth, pressing it tight and
forcing her back against him. He shook her brutally, angrily. He was
very strong. "Now will you stop," he insisted, "or do you want me to
choke you quiet? I will, if you don't. You're out of your mind. Stop,
I tell you! So this is the way you carry on when things don't go to
suit you?" She was sobbing, struggling, moaning, half screaming, quite
beside herself.

"Oh, you crazy fool!" he said, swinging her round, and with an effort
getting out a handkerchief, which he forced o