t
loved me? Has he not sought to be my lover? And he can spit upon me in
the dust!" She raised her head. "Did you believe me blind, infatuated?
Did you think by your tricks and pretences to evade me? Did I not see,
from the moment that she came, that your false heart had turned from
me?" Her eyes came back to Karen's face and fury again seized her. "And
as for you, ungrateful girl--perfidious, yes, and insolent one--you
deserve to be denounced to the world. Oh, we understand those retreats.
What more alluring to the man who pursues than the woman who flees? What
more inflaming than the pose of white, idiotic innocence? You did not
know. You did not understand--" fiercely, in a mincing voice, she
mimicked a supposed exculpation. "You are so young, so ignorant of
life--so _immer kindlich_! Ah!" she laughed, half strangled, "until the
man seizes you in his arms you are quite unaware--but quite, quite
unaware--of what he seeks from you. Little fool! And more than fool.
Have I not seen your wiles? From day to day have I not watched you? Now
it is the piano. You must play him your favourite little piece; so
small; you have so little talent; but you will do your best. Now the
chance meeting in the garden; you are so fond of flowers; you so love
the open air, the sea, the wandering on the cliffs; such a free, wild
creature you are. And now we have the frustrated _rendezvous_ of this
evening; he should find you dreaming, among your flowers, in the dusk.
The pretty picture. And no, you want no dinner; you will go to your own
room. But you are not to be found in your own room. Oh, no; it is again
the garden; the moon; the sea and solitude that you seek! Be silent!"
this was almost shouted at Claude Drew, who broke in with savage
denials. "Do you think still to impose on me--you traitor?--No," her
eyes burned on Karen's face. "No; you are wiser. You do not speak. You
know that the time for insolence has passed. What! You take refuge with
me here. You fly from your husband and throw yourself on my hands and
say to me,"--again she assumed the mincing tones--"Yes, here I am again.
Continue, pray, to work for me; continue, pray, to clothe and feed and
lodge me; continue to share your life with me and all of rich and wide
and brilliant it can offer; continue, in a word, to hold me high--but
very high--above the gutter from which I came--and I take you, I receive
you in my arms, I shelter you from malicious tongues, I humble myself in
see