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deliberately she drew the edge of her little knife across the back of his hand, and he leapt away with a howl of pain. "You--you beast," he stammered, and she looked at him with her sly smile. "There must have been cave women, too, Marcus," she said coolly, as she rose. "They had their methods--give me your handkerchief, I want to wipe this knife." His face was grey now. He was looking at her like a man bereft of his senses. He did not move when she took his handkerchief from his pocket, wiped the knife, closed and slipped it into her bag, before she replaced the handkerchief tidily. And all the time he stood there with his hand streaming with blood, incapable of movement. It was not until she had disappeared round the corner of the house that he pulled out the handkerchief and wrapped it about his hand. "A devil," he whimpered, almost in tears, "a devil!" Chapter XXVI Jean Briggerland discovered a new arrival on her return to the house. Jack Glover had come unexpectedly from London, so Lydia told her, and Jack himself met her with extraordinary geniality. "You lucky people to be in this paradise!" he said. "It is raining like the dickens in London, and miserable beyond description. And you're looking brown and beautiful, Miss Briggerland." "The spirit of the warm south has got into your blood, Mr. Glover," she said sarcastically. "A course at the Riviera would make you almost human." "And what would make you human?" asked Jack blandly. "I hope you people aren't going to quarrel as soon as you meet," said Lydia. Jean was struck by the change in the girl. There was a colour in her cheeks, and a new and a more joyous note in her voice, which was unmistakable to so keen a student as Jean Briggerland. "I never quarrel with Jack," she said. She assumed a proprietorial air toward Jack Glover, which unaccountably annoyed Lydia. "He invents the quarrels and carries them out himself. How long are you staying?" "Two days," said Jack, "then I'm due back in town." "Have you brought your Mr. Jaggs with you?" asked Jean innocently. "Isn't he here?" asked Jack in surprise. "I sent him along a week ago." "Here?" repeated Jean slowly. "Oh, he's here, is he? Of course." She nodded. Certain things were clear to her now; the unknown drencher of beds, the stranger who had appeared from nowhere and had left her father senseless, were no longer mysteries. "Oh, Jean," it was Lydia who spoke.
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