"You can give me all the wise advice you want to, but the fact
remains.--I have reason to be angry, and I am angry, and I can't help it,
and won't help it! Great heavens, I'm human!"
"Yes, dear, you're human, and so am I. You have great provocation, and
I think I'm almost as angry, in my small way, with Dr. Van Horn, as
you are, now that I know. But--I want you somehow to keep control of
yourself. You are a gentleman, and he is not, but he is acting like a
gentleman--hush--on the outside, I mean--and--you are not!"
"What!"
"Dear, _are_ you?"
"What do you know about it?"
"From the little I saw outside the house this morning."
He grasped her arms so tightly that he hurt her. "Lord! If you mean that
I ought to grin at him, as he does at me, the snake in the grass--"
"I don't mean that, of course. But I do think you shouldn't allow
yourself to look as if you wanted to knock him down."
"There's nothing in life that would give me greater satisfaction!"
He relaxed his grasp on her arms, and she let them drop from his
shoulders. She turned aside, with a little droop of the head, as if she
felt it useless to argue with one so stubbornly set on his own
destruction.
He looked after her. "A big brute, am I not? Didn't know me before, did
you? Thought I was all fine, warm heart and blarneying words.
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