He shrugged his shoulders as he walked to the door. "I was--a big fool,"
he said very bitterly.

The door closed upon him. Netta stood staring at it, tragic and
tear-stained.

Suddenly she stamped her foot and whirled round in a rage. "I won't be
treated like a naughty child! I won't--I won't! I'll write to my Arabian
Knight--I'll write now--and tell him how wretched I am! If Dick objects
to our friendship I'll just leave him, that's all. I was a donkey ever
to marry him. I always knew we shouldn't get on."

She paused, listening, half-fearing, half-hoping, that she had heard
him returning. Then she heard his voice in the next room. He was talking
to Tessa.

She set her lips and went to her writing-table. "Oh yes, he can make it
up with his child when he knows he has been brutal; but never a single
kind word to his wife--not one word!"

She took up a pen with fingers that trembled with indignation, and began
to write.




CHAPTER IX

THE OASIS