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330 an exclamation he pushed Nina aside, gathered his wife up in his arms and carried her upstairs, stumbling once or twice on her loose gown. Teresa saw his face, drawn and passionate; hate was in it, and a feeling stronger than hate. And over his shoulder, as he brushed past her, she saw the white face of the victorious woman—a cruel face, with lowered eyelids and contented mouth.

That night Edith kept her room, and kept Egisto beside her. Her maid was hurriedly packing. They were to leave the next morning. Egisto had made his conditions. Edith was to go to the family place at Castiglione di Pepoli and live there with her mother-in-law, whom she hated, at Egisto's pleasure. She yielded without question, having won her victory; other things could be arranged later.

Nina kept Teresa to dinner, which neither of them could eat. Ernestine was with them, her cheeks aflame, asking inconvenient questions, which the governess pretended to repress. The murmur of those two voices, heard now from above, seemed somehow to fill the house. The closed room and its drama was in the thoughts of all, even the uncanny child was preoccupied with it. Teresa felt herself trembling with desire to be gone. An overwhelming sense of disgust was upon her. She fled as soon as the farce of dinner was over, and walked alone through the