"A little affair of this sort, eh, Mr.Cecil?
Why don't you teach the young lady a simpler way of summoning you than by that infernal bell ?" Still Kate did not reply.

She was standing with her back to the oak table in the centre of the hall, and the men, who were both watching her covertly, were conscious of a certain significance in her attitude.
Her black hair was tossed all over her face; from its tangled web her eyes seemed to gleam with a steady inimical gaze.

Her dress of dark red stuff was splashed in places with the salt water, and her feet were soaking.

With her left hand she clasped the table; her right seemed hidden in the folds of her skirt.
"What do you want, Kate ?" Cecil asked at last.

"What do you mean by coming here like this?
If you want to see me you know how, without arousing the whole household at this time of night." "You are not fool enough," Kate said calmly, "to imagine that I came to-night to listen to your lies.