I was a brute, Lily--Lily!--just look at me----" Over and over her the sea of humiliation broke--wave crashing on wave so close that the moral shame was one with the physical dread.

It seemed to her that self-esteem would have made her invulnerable--that it was her own dishonour which put a fearful solitude about her.
His touch was a shock to her drowning consciousness.

She drew back from him with a desperate assumption of scorn.
"I've told you I don't understand--but if I owe you money you shall be paid----" Trenor's face darkened to rage: her recoil of abhorrence had called out the primitive man.
"Ah--you'll borrow from Selden or Rosedale--and take your chances of fooling them as you've fooled me! Unless--unless you've settled your other scores already--and I'm the only one left out in the cold!" She stood silent, frozen to her place.

The words--the words were worse than the touch! Her heart was beating all over her body--in her throat, her limbs, her helpless useless hands.

Her eyes travelled despairingly about the room--they lit on the bell, and she remembered that help was in call.