Page:Mehalah 1920.djvu/261

Rh A firm hand was on the door, it was thrown open, and in the grey light stood Mehalah. "Where have you been?" asked Elijah, hardly able to speak, so agitated with fury and disappointed love was he. "I have been," she said composedly, "on the Ray, sitting there and dreaming of the past." "Of the past!" shouted Rebow. "You have been dreaming of George? "Yes, I have." "I thought it, I knew you were," he yelled, "Come here, my wife." "I am not your wife. I never will be your wife, except in name. I told you so. I cannot, and I will not love you. I cannot, and I will not, be aught to you but a housekeeper, a servant. I have taken your name to save mine, that is all." "That is all because you love George De Witt."

"George De Witt is dead." "I don't care whether he be dead or not, you think that he is your double. I tell you, as I have told you before, he is not. I am."

"I will not listen to more of this," she said in a hard tone. "Let me pass, let me go to my room."

"I will not let you pass," he swore; the breath came through his nostrils like the snorting of a frightened horse; "I will not. Hear me. Glory, my own Glory! hear me you shall." He grasped her arms between the elbow and shoulder with his iron hands, and shook her savagely. "Listen to me, Glory, you must and shall. You do not love me. Glory, because you do not fear me. The dog whom I beat till it howls with torture creeps up to me and licks my hand, A woman will never love her equal, but she will worship her superior. You have shown me to-day that you think yourself on a level with me. You have donned again your cap of liberty," he raised one hand to her head, plucked off the cap and cast it on the floor, "thinking that now you have taken me before the world, you have broken my power over you. You do not know me, Glory! you do not know me. Listen to me!" Through the twilight she could see his fierce eyes flaring at her, her hair was