suspicious. I've been waiting for hours--while you were out with
that grafter, drinking, carousing--"

He bent toward her, white with fury, but she blew the smoke from
her cigarette into his face, and he checked himself, staring at
her strangely. For the first time he forgot his own injured
feelings and perceived the insolent defiance in her expression. It
took him aback, for in all his aggressive, violent life of
conquest no one had ever defied him, no one had ever insulted him
nor deliberately set about rousing his ire. But Lilas, he saw, was
doing so, and with a purpose. There was more in this woman's
bearing, he decided, than reckless defiance--there was an
intentional challenge and a threat. Therefore with an effort he
governed himself, recoiling in surprise.

She had seated herself upon the edge of the reading-table, one
foot swinging idly. She watched him with a brooding, insolent
amusement.

"Are you just drunk," he said, uncertainly, "or--have you
completely lost your senses?"

"Yes, I'm drunk, but I know what I'm doing. I went out last night,
and you warned me. I went out again to-night and--Oh yes! I helped
marry your friend's son to a show-girl. What are you going to do
about it?"

"I--why, you mustn't talk like that; you're not yourself, Lilas."
He ran his eyes over the luxurious little room; he wiped his face
with a shaky hand, feeling that it was he who had lost his senses.