Page:O Genteel Lady! (1926).pdf/177

 'I would have rather believed,' he said at last, 'that the Virgin Mary was a woman of the streets and our Saviour...' he stopped nervously. His temper had cooled a little and his language had grown less interesting. 'I'd rather believe anything,' he continued lamely, 'than that you are the dissolute woman you admit yourself to be.' This was not her cue. Lanice still waited. 'I don't see how I can still love you,' he cried out miserably, 'What is more ridiculous than to love a woman for a chastity that she lacks?' He paused before adding, 'This is a lesson to me. I will never again believe in your sex as I did.'

Lanice looked up.

'I hope you never will. I hope you'll see we are not made of cambric and sawdust, with porcelain heads, but of flesh and blood, Augustus.'

The way she said 'flesh and blood' fired him. He lunged towards her and would have grasped her roughly in his arms. His ideals and his body were at war, and for the moment it was his body that had the ascendancy. His temper was up and his language grew coarse.

'No, no!' she cried out, as once she had cried to Mr. Jones. His sweating face and raging strength frightened her.

'You are not too fine to lie with a notorious rake, ma'am. Are you so delicate as to refuse me a kiss?'

'I am much too delicate,' she replied in a high, angry voice.

'You sneer at me when I propose marriage, as I weakly did a few moments ago. Come! Women, as