e wretched money! If you
can't keep the filthy stuff--if it won't prevent you from going on the
stage after all--why then, give it away! Throw it away! Lose it, if you
can. But don't come to me with it, for it's the price of a thing I
bought in the way of business and which I won't give up, nor take as a
gift from anybody.'

He spoke in such a harsh tone now that she paused in her short walk and
met his eyes, to see what he meant, over and above what he was saying.
She stood in front of the chair; he was leaning over the back of it,
with his hands together; one hand was slowly kneading the closed fist,
and the veins stood out on both. His voice was hoarse but rather low,
like that of a man who wants water.

The light in the room had a yellowish tinge now, and the window showed
a dull glare where there had been blue sky before. The lurid light got
into Logotheti's eyes, and was ready to flash while Margaret looked at
him. The marble Aphrodite took a creamy, living tint, and the little
shadows that modelled her quivered and deepened.

All at once Margaret knew that there was danger. She could not have
told how she knew it, nor just what the danger was, but she raised her
fair head suddenly, as the stag does when the scent of the hounds comes
down the breeze. Watching her, he saw and understood, and his hands
left each other and closed tightly upon the back of the chair.

'Will you take me back to Madame De Rosa, please?' Margaret asked, and
her voice did not shake.

Before he could answer, a flash of lightning filled the room, vivid as
flame, and almost purple; it flared and danced two or three times
before it went out.

If Logotheti spoke at all, his words were drowned in the crash that
shook the house and rolled away over the city. His eyes never moved
from Margaret's face; she felt that his gaze was fastened on her lips,
as if he would have drawn them to meet his own. She was not exactly
afraid, but she knew that she must get away from him, for he was
stronger than she, and he was like a man going mad. That was what she
would have called it. And it seemed to her that one of two things was
going to happen. Either she would let his lips reach hers, without
resisting, or else she would try to kill him when he came near her. She
did not know which she should do. She was in herself two people; the
one was a human woman, tempted by the mysterious sympathy of flesh and
blood; the other self was a startled maiden caught