Chance

He went away brusquely to shut the door leading on deck and came back the

whole length of the cabin repeating:

"I must have the legal right. Are you ashamed of letting people think

you are my wife?"

He opened his arms as if to clasp her to his breast but mastered the

impulse and shook his clenched hands at her, repeating: "I must have the

right if only for your father's sake. I must have the right. Where

would you take him? To that infernal cardboard box-maker. I don't know

what keeps me from hunting him up in his virtuous home and bashing his

head in. I can't bear the thought. Listen to me, Flora! Do you hear

what I am saying to you? You are not so proud that you can't understand

that I as a man have my pride too?"

He saw a tear glide down her white cheek from under each lowered eyelid.

Then, abruptly, she walked out of the cabin. He stood for a moment,

concentrated, reckoning his own strength, interrogating his heart, before

he followed her hastily. Already she had reached the wharf.

At the sound of his pursuing footsteps her strength failed her. Where

could she escape from this? From this new perfidy of life taking upon

itself the form of magnanimity. His very voice was changed. The

sustaining whirlwind had let her down, to stumble on again, weakened by

the fresh stab, bereft of moral support which is wanted in life more than

all the charities of material help. She had never had it. Never. Not

from the Fynes. But where to go? Oh yes, this dock--a placid sheet of

water close at hand. But there was that old man with whom she had walked

hand in hand on the parade by the sea. She seemed to see him coming to

meet her, pitiful, a little greyer, with an appealing look and an

extended, tremulous arm. It was for her now to take the hand of that

wronged man more helpless than a child. But where could she lead him?

Where? And what was she to say to him? What words of cheer, of courage

and of hope? There were none. Heaven and earth were mute, unconcerned

at their meeting. But this other man was coming up behind her. He was

very close now. His fiery person seemed to radiate heat, a tingling

vibration into the atmosphere. She was exhausted, careless, afraid to

stumble, ready to fall. She fancied she could hear his breathing. A

wave of languid warmth overtook her, she seemed to lose touch with the

ground under her feet; and when she felt him slip his hand under her arm

she made no attempt to disengage herself from that grasp which closed

upon her limb, insinuating and firm.