his hat and without another word stumbled off down the steps, and went round the front of the house.
She sat still for a minute and then her lips began to quiver. She bit them into steadiness, and getting up went in to change her clothes, and bathe her hot face. She went back to the verandah dressed in white, feeling shaken now herself by the temper she had been in. Seeing no sign of Dane she whistled for him, and he came from the back of the house.
“Why, where is he?” he asked as he came up the steps.
“He’s gone.”
“Gone! My dear, you haven’t let him go, have you?” He stopped at the top of the steps looking at her.
“Oh, I told him we were married, Dane. And he got up and went without a word. It’s the only sensible thing he’s done since he came.”
A pained look flashed over his eyes. He walked to the tea-table, lifted the lid of the pot, and then rang the bell.
“Make us some fresh tea, would you please, Lee.”
Valerie stood still, stung by the fact that he was ignoring her.
Turning at the table he looked at her a little wearily. “Well, old girl, what have you gained by keeping the marriage secret? If you call this kind of thing freedom, I don’t.”
“I don’t care what you call it. He had no business to come and interfere, to call you names ———”
“Oh, forget them, please.”
“But that wasn’t the worst. He came here to bribe me—to bribe me to go away from you. He offered me the thing he knows I’ve wanted for years—tried my weakest spot—and now—and now ———”
He took a step towards her and stopped, drooping his shoulders and putting his head on one side.
