to the library.
He had entered and closed the door to sit down and have a good think about how he could “square Madge,” when he became aware that the lady in his thoughts was seated in one of the great arm-chairs with a book in her hand, which she pretended to read. She cowered as her cousin started, and stood gazing down at her with a frowning brow, and a look of utter disgust and contempt about his lips which made her bosom rise and fall rapidly.
“Do you want this room, Rob?” she said, breaking an awkward silence.
“Well, yes, after what took place this morning, you do make the place seem unpleasant,” he said coolly.
“Oh, this is too much,” cried Madge, her face, the moment before deadly pale, now flushing scarlet, as she threw down the book she had held, and stood before him, biting her lips with rage.
“Yes, too much.”
“And have we been to the cottage to see the fair idol? Pray explain,” said Marjorie, who was beside herself with rage and jealousy. “I thought gentlemen who were engaged always made an end of their vulgar amours.”
“Quite right,” said Rolph, meaningly. “I did begin, as you know.”
She winced, and her eyes darted an angry flash at him.
“You mean me,” she said, with her lips turning white.
“I did not say so.”
“But would it not have been better, now we are engaged to Glynne Day – I don’t understand these things, of course – but would it not have been better for a gentleman, now that he is engaged, to cease visiting that creature, and, above all, to keep away when he was not wanted?”
“What do you mean? – not wanted?”
“I mean when she was engaged with her lover, who was visiting her in her father’s absence.”
“The scoundrel!” cried Rolph, fiercely.
“Yes; a miserable, contemptible wretch, I suppose, but an old flame of hers.”
“Look here, Madge; you’re saying all this to make me wild,” cried Rolph, “but it won’t do. You know it’s a lie.”
Madge laughed unpleasantly.
“It’s true. He was always after her. She told me so herself, and how glad she was that the wretch had been sent to prison – of course, because he was in the way just then.”
“Go on,” growled Rolph. “A jealous woman will say anything.”
“Jealous? – I? – Pah! – Only angry with myself because I was so weak as to listen to you.”
“And I was so weak as to say anything to a malicious, deceitful cat of a girl, who is spiteful enough to do anything.”
“I, spiteful? – Pah!”
“Well, malicious then.”
“Perhaps I shall be. I wonder what dear Glynne would say about this business. Suppose I told her that our honourable and gallant friend, as they call it in parliament, had been on a visit to that shameless creature whom poor auntie had been compelled to turn away from the house, and in his honourable and gallant visit arrived just in time to witness the end of a lover’s quarrel; perhaps you joined in for ought I know, and – I can’t help laughing – Poor fellow! You did. You have been fighting with your rival, and bruised your knuckles. Did he beat you much, Rob, and win?”
Robert Rolph was dense and brutal enough, and his cousin’s words made him wince, but he looked at the speaker in disgust as the malevolence of her nature forced itself upon him more and more.
“Well,” he cried at last, “I’ve seen some women in my time, but I never met one yet who could stand by and glory in seeing one whom she had looked upon as a sister insulted like poor Judy was.”
“A sister!” cried Marjorie, contemptuously. “Absurd! – a low-born trull!”
“Whom you called dear, and kissed often enough till you thought I liked her, and then – Hang it all, Madge, are you utterly without shame!”
She shrank from him as if his words were thongs which cut into her flesh, but as he ceased speaking, with a passionate sob, she flung her arms about his neck, and clung tightly there.
“Rob! Don’t, I can’t bear it,” she cried. “You don’t know what I have suffered – what agony all this has caused.”
“There, there, that will do,” he said contemptuously. “I am engaged, my dear.”
She sprang from him, and a fierce light burned in her eyes for a moment, but disappointment and her despair were too much for her, and she flung herself upon his breast.
“No, no, Rob, dear, it isn’t true. I couldn’t help hating Judith or any woman who came between us. You don’t mean all this, and it is only to try me. You cannot – you shall not marry Glynne; and as to Judith, it is impossible now.”
“Give over,” he said roughly, as he tried to free himself from her arms.
“No, you sha’n’t go. I must tell you,” she whispered hoarsely amidst her sobs. “I hate Judith, but she is nothing – not worthy of a thought I will never mention her name to you again, dear.”
“Don’t pray,” he cried sarcastically. “If you do, I shall always be seeing you gloating over her trouble as I saw you this morning.”
“It was because I loved you so, Rob,” she murmured as she nestled to him. “It was because I felt that you were mine and mine only, after the past; and all that was forcing her away from you.”
“Bah!” he cried savagely. “Madge! Don’t be a fool! Will you loosen your hands before I hurt you.”
But she clung to him still.
“No, not yet,” she whispered. “You made me love you, Rob, and I forget everything in that. Promise me first that you will break all that off about Glynne Day.”
“I promise you that I’ll get your aunt to place you in a private asylum,” he cried brutally, “if you don’t leave go.”
There was a slight struggle, and he tore himself free, holding her wrists together in his powerful grasp and keeping her at arm’s length.
“There! Idiot!” he cried. “Must I hold you till you come to your senses.”
“If you wish – brute!” she cried through her little white teeth as her lips were drawn away. “Kill me if you like now. I don’t care a bit: you can’t hurt me more than you have.”
“If I hurt you, it serves you right. A nice, ladylike creature, ’pon my soul. Pity my mother hasn’t been here to see the kind of woman she wanted me to marry.”
“Go on,” she whispered, “go on. Insult me: you have a right. Go on.”
“I’m going off,” he said roughly. “There, go up to your room, and have a good hysterical cry and a wash, and come back to your senses. If you will have it you shall, and the whole truth too. I never cared a bit for you. It
