"I don't believe you've come here to look for work," he said, stooping
over the crouching figure. "You've come here to make trouble--to hound
the life out of me."
"My hope in coming here was that I might never see you again. What
could I want of you, Lennox Sanderson?"
The measured contempt of her tones was not without its effect. He
winced perceptibly, but his coarse instincts rallied to his help and
again he began to bully: "Spare me the usual hard-luck story of the deceived young woman trying
to make an honest living. If you insist on drudging, it's your own
fault. I offered to take care of you and provide for your future, but
you received my offers of assistance with a 'Villain-take-your-gold'
style, that I was not prepared to accept. If, as you say, you never
wish to see me again, what is simpler than to go away?"
His cold-blooded indifference, his utter withdrawal from the calamity
he had brought upon her, his airy suggestion that she should go because
it suited his pleasure to remain, maddened Anna. The blood rushed to
her pale cheeks and there came her old conquering beauty with it. She
eyed him with equal defiance.
"I shall not go, because it does not suit me." And then wavering a
little at the thought of her wretched experience--"I had too much
trouble finding a place where an honest home is offered for honest
work, to leave this one for your whim. No, I shall not go."
They heard footsteps moving about the house. A lamp shone out from the
dining-room window. The Squire's voice, inquiring for Kate, came
across to them on the still summer air. They looked into each other's
pale, determined faces. Which would yield? It was the old struggle
between the sexes--a struggle old as earth, unsettled as chaos.
Which should yield? The man who had sinned much, or the woman who had
loved much?
Sanderson employed all the force of his brutality to frighten Anna into
yielding. "See here," and he caught her arm in no uncertain grasp.
"You've got to go. You can't stay here in the same place with me. If
money is what you want, you shall have it; but you've got to go. Do
you understand? Go!"
He had emphasized his words by tightening the grip on her arm, and the
pain of it well nigh made her cry out. He relaxed his hold just as Hi
Holler came out on the porch, seized the supper horn and blew it
furiously. The Squire came down and looked amazed at the smartly
dressed young city man talking to Anna.