"Dick, I swear to you--I have never--I have never--" He stopped the words upon her lips with his own, but his kiss was terrible.

She shrank from it trembling, appalled.
In a moment he let her go, and she sank upon her couch, hiding her quivering face with convulsive weeping.
"You are cruel! You are cruel!" she sobbed.
He remained beside her, looking down at her till some of the sternness passed from his face.
He bent at last and touched her.

"I'm not cruel," he said.

"I'm just in earnest, that's all.

You be careful for the future! There's a bit of the devil in me too when I'm goaded." She drew herself away from him, half-frightened still and half petulant.
"You used to be--ever so much nicer than you are now," she said, keeping her face averted.
He answered her sombrely as he turned away, "I used to have a wife that I honoured before all creation." She sprang to her feet.