At last:
"Can you attend to me now?" he asked her formally.
She raised herself slowly.
"May I say something first?" she said.
He turned his brooding eyes upon her.
"If you can say it quietly," he said.
She pressed her hand to her throat.
"You--will listen to me, and--and believe me?"
"I shall know if you lie to me," he said.
She made a sharp gesture of protest.
"I don't deserve that," she said. "You know it."
His grim lips relaxed a very little.
"I shouldn't talk about deserts if I were you," he said.
His tone scared her again, but she made a valiant effort to compose
herself.
"You say that," she said, "because you are very angry with me. I don't
dispute your right to be angry. I know I've made a fool of you. But--but
after all"--her voice began to shake uncontrollably; she forced out the
words with difficulty--"I've made a much bigger fool of myself. I think
you might consider that."
He did consider it with drawn brows.
"Does that improve your case?" he asked at length.
She did not answer him. She was trying hard to read his face, but it told
her nothing. With a swift movement she slipped to her feet and stood
before him.
"I don't know," she said, speaking fast and passionately, "what you have
in your mind. I don't know what you think of me. But I suppose you mean
to punish me in some way, to--to give me a lesson that will hurt me all
my life.
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