He held her locked to him. "You've gone too far," he said.

"I haven't, Dick! I haven't!" she protested. "Dick, I swear to you--I
have never--I have never--"

He stopped the words upon her lips with his own, but his kiss was
terrible. She shrank from it trembling, appalled.

In a moment he let her go, and she sank upon her couch, hiding her
quivering face with convulsive weeping.

"You are cruel! You are cruel!" she sobbed.

He remained beside her, looking down at her till some of the sternness
passed from his face.

He bent at last and touched her. "I'm not cruel," he said. "I'm just in
earnest, that's all. You be careful for the future! There's a bit of the
devil in me too when I'm goaded."

She drew herself away from him, half-frightened still and half petulant.
"You used to be--ever so much nicer than you are now," she said, keeping
her face averted.

He answered her sombrely as he turned away, "I used to have a wife that
I honoured before all creation."

She sprang to her feet. "Dick! How can you be so horrid?"