Page:Neith Boyce--The bond.djvu/420

418 look ill, and apparently you're trying to be ill."

"I thought you said I looked well," said Teresa, still staring at the mounting flames.

"I said you looked beautiful …"

He bent down and touched her arm, kissed it, and suddenly clasped her in a fierce embrace.

Teresa pushed him away and got up.

"Don't do that," she said under her breath.

She stood looking at him, her body tense, her eyes shining like steel under half-lowered lids.

"Don't you—don't you care for me any more?" he stammered.

"I hate you!"

He waited a moment, then turned toward the door.

But to see him go, like that, to feel that silence shut down upon her again! No—at any price, on any terms, not that! She called him, and her voice was almost a shriek. She ran to him and threw herself into his arms.