ass, Carey, or that--"

"Fritz, once for all, I won't have my friends abused. I allowed you to
have your own way about Rupert Carey, but I will not have Robin Pierce or
anyone else insulted. Please understand that. I married to be more free,
not more--"

"You married because you'd fallen jolly well in love with me, that's why
you married, and that's why you're a damned lucky woman. Come to bed. You
won't, eh?"

He made a stride, snatched Lady Holme up as if she were a bundle, and
carried her off to bed.

She was on the point of bursting into angry tears, but when she found
herself snatched up, her slippers tumbling off, the hood of the burnous
falling over her eyes, her face crushed anyhow against her husband's
sinewy chest, she suddenly felt oddly contented, disinclined to protest
or to struggle.

Lord Holme did not trouble himself to ask what she was feeling or why she
was feeling it.

He thought of himself--the surest way to fasten upon a man the thoughts
of others.



CHAPTER IV