"Don't you see what I am now?"
Suddenly she felt angry with him because his eyes did not seem to see the
dreadful change in her appearance.
"Don't you think I want a saviour too?" she exclaimed.
"I don't think about you," he said with a sort of deliberate brutality.
"I think about myself. Men generally do when they come to women."
"Or go away from them," she said.
She was thinking of Robin then, and Fritz.
"Did you know Robin Pierce was here to-day?" she asked.
"Yes. I saw him leave you."
"You saw--but how long have you been watching?"
"A long time."
"Where do you come from?"
He pointed towards the distant lights behind her and before him.
"Opposite. I was to have stayed with Ulford in Casa Felice. I'm staying
with him over there."
"With Sir Donald?"
"Yes. He's ill. He wants somebody."
"Sir Donald's afraid of me now," she said, watching him closely. "I told
him to live with his memory of me. Will he do that?"
"I think he will. Poor old chap! he's had hard knocks. They've made him
afraid of life."
"Why didn't you keep your memory of me?" she said, with sudden nervous
anger. "You too? If you hadn't come to-night it would never have been
destroyed."
Her extreme tension of the nerves impelled her to an exhibition of fierce
bitterness which she could not control. She remembered how he had loved
her, with what violence and almost crazy frankness. Why had he come? He
might have remembered her as she was.
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