THE STEADFAST HEART
turned to ice by her sense of outrage…. Then she seemed to think, to realize, to become a human girl, capable of ordinary human emotions and actions…. The change was swift, startling, not without its elements of youthful comedy, for she stepped forward a pace and deliberately, with the gesture of an angry child, she slapped Malcolm across the mouth…. Mal gave back a step, even as in childhood he had been used to seek safety from her sudden tempers in flight…. She did not follow, but, having slapped him, became very still again, motionless. Then she rubbed her cheek, her lips with her hand, as though to remove something repulsive to her skin, did it slowly, thoroughly…. This action seemed to call her to herself, for she drew a deep breath which sounded like a gasp of pain. Her face paled and then flushed. Strangely, even then, she felt deep within her a relief, a breaking of something which she desired to have broken… and knowledge came to her—the knowledge that she had attempted the impossible, that she could never give herself to Malcolm Crane; could never, never again endure his touch nor submit her soul to the impiety of his caresses….
“Go,” she said, her voice a hard, cold whisper. “Go!… Go!… Go!… Never—never come again…. Never!…”
“Lydia!”
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