Page:Marsh--The seen and the unseen.djvu/302

278 not so soft as you think. Your wife's got some money if you haven't. Suppose you go back and ask her for some. You've treated me badly enough. I don't see why you shouldn't go and treat her the same. She wouldn't make things warm for you if she knew a few things I could tell her — not at all! You give me a hundred sovereigns or, I tell you straight, I'll go right to your house and I'll tell her all."

"Oh, no, you won't"

"Won't I? I say I will!"

"Oh, no, you won't."

"I say I will! I've warned you, that's all. I'm not going to stop here, talking stuff to you. I'm going to bed. You can go and hang yourself for all I care."

There was a sound, an indubitable sound — the sound of a pair of shoes being thrown upon the floor. There were other sounds, equally capable of explanation: sounds which suggested — I wish the printer would put it in small type — that the lady was undressing. Undressing, too, with scant regard to ceremony. Garments were thrown off and tossed higgledy-piggledy here and there. They appeared to be thrown, with sublime indifference, upon table, chairs, and floor. I even felt something alight upon the bed. Some feminine garment, perhaps, which, although it fell by no means heavily, made me conscious, as it fell, of the most curious sensation I had in all my life — till then — experienced. It seemed that the lady, while she unrobed, continued smoking. From her next words it appeared that the gentleman, also smoking, stood and stared at her.