Sanine

"Oh! women, women!"

Lida looked at him in horror. A pitiless light seemed to flash across

her mind. In one instant she realized that she was lost. What she had

given that was noble and pure, she had given to a man that did not

exist. Her fair young life, her purity, her pride, had all been flung

at the feet of a base, cowardly brute who instead of being grateful to

her had merely soiled her by acts of coarse lubricity. For a moment she

felt ready to wring her hands and fall to the ground in an agony of

despair, but lightning-swift her mood changed to one of revenge and

bitter hatred.

"Can't you really see how intensely stupid you are?" she hissed through

her clenched teeth, as she looked straight into his eyes.

The insolent words and the look of hatred were so unsuited to Lida,

gracious, feminine Lida, that Sarudine instinctively recoiled. He had

not quite understood their import, and sought to pass them by with a

jest.

"What words to use!" he said, surprised and annoyed.

"I'm not in a mood to choose my words," replied Lida bitterly, as she

wrung her hands. Sarudine frowned.

"Why all these tragic airs?" he asked. Unconsciously allured by their

beauty of outline, he glanced at her soft shoulders and exquisitely

moulded arms. Her gesture of helplessness and despair made him feel

sure of his superiority. It was as if they were being weighed in

scales, one sinking when the other rose. Sarudine felt a cruel pleasure

in knowing that this girl whom instinctively he had considered superior

to himself was now made to suffer through him. In the first stage of

their intimacy he had feared her. Now she had been brought to shame and

dishonour; at which he was glad.

He grew softer. Gently he took her strengthless hands in his, and drew

her closer to him. His senses were roused; his breath came quicker.

"Never mind! It'll be all right! There is nothing so dreadful about it,

after all!"

"So you think, eh?" replied Lida scornfully. It was scorn that helped

her to recover herself, and she gazed at him with strange intensity.

"Why, of course I do," said Sarudine, attempting to embrace her in a

way that he knew to be effective. But she remained cold and lifeless.

"Come, now, why are you so cross, my pretty one?" he murmured in a

gentle tone of reproof.

"Let me go! Let me go, I say!" exclaimed Lida, as she shook him off.

Sarudine felt physically hurt that his passion should have been roused

in vain.