She was blind with the surging of her blood, and saw not how she caught or held it, or what she did--only that she struck! And 'twas his temple that the loaded weapon met, and 'twas wielded by a wrist whose sinews were of steel, and even as it struck he gasped, casting up his hands, and thereupon fell, and lay stretched at her feet! But the awful tempest which swept over her had her so under its dominion that she was like a branch whirled on the wings of the storm.

She scarce noted that he fell, or noting it, gave it not one thought as she dashed from one end of the apartment to the other with the fierce striding of a mad woman.
"Devil!" she cried, "and cur! and for thee I blasted all the years to come! To a beast so base I gave all that an empress' self could give--all life--all love--for ever.

And he comes back--shameless--to barter like a cheating huckster, because his trade goes ill, and I--I could stock his counters once again." She strode towards him, raving.
"Think you I do not know, woman's bully and poltroon, that you plot to sell yourself, because your day has come, and no woman will bid for such an outcast, saving one that you may threaten.

Rise, vermin--rise, lest I kill thee!" In her blind madness she lashed him once across the face again.

And he stirred not--and something in the resistless feeling of the flesh beneath the whip, and in the quiet of his lying, caused her to pause and stand panting and staring at the thing which lay before her.