lf facing
horrible ogre--and, either by chance or design, her hand touched and
held the tip of a great silver-framed photograph of her late husband.

"I think I've proved it," said Jaffery.

"Are you proving it now? What value can you attach to Adrian's memory
when you say such things to me?"

"I'm saying to you what every honest man has the right to say to the
free woman he loves."

"But I'm not a free woman. I'm bound to Adrian."

"You can't be bound to him forever and ever."

"I am. That's why it's shameful and dishonourable of you,"--his blue
eyes flashed dangerously and he clenched his hands, but heedless she
went on--"yes, mean and base and despicable of you to wish to betray
him. Adrian--"

"Oh, don't talk drivel. It makes me sick. Leave Adrian alone and listen
to a living man," he shouted, all the pent-up intellectual disgusts and
sex-jealousies bursting out in a mad gush. "A real live man who would
walk through Hell for you!" He caught her frail body in his great grasp,
and she vibrated like a bit of wire caught up by a dynamo. "My love for
you has nothing whatever to do with Adrian. I've been as loyal to him as
one man can be to another, living and dead. By God, I have! Ask Hilary
and Barbara. But I want you. I've wanted you since the first moment I
set eyes on you. You've got into my blood. You're going to love me.
You're going to marry me, Adrian or no Adrian."

He bent over her and she met the passion in his eyes bravely. She did
not lack courage. And her eyes were hard and her lips were white and her
face was pinched into a marble statuette of hate. And unconscious that
his grip was giving her physical pain he continued:

"I've waited for you. I've waited for you from the moment I heard you
were engaged to the other man. And I'll go on waiting. But, by
God!"--and, not knowing what he did, he shook her backwards and
forwards--"I'll not go on waiting for ever. You--you little bit of
mystery--you little bit of eternity--you--you--ah!"

With a great gesture he released her. But the poor ogre had not counted
on his strength. His unwitting violence sent her spinning, and she fell,
knocking her head against a sofa. He uttered a gasp of horror and in an
instant lifted her and laid her on the sofa, and on his knees beside
her, with remorse oversurging his passion, behaved like a penitent fool,
accusing himself of all the unforgivable savageries ever practised by
barbaric male. Doria, who was not hurt in