Page:The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (emended first edition), Volume 2.djvu/94

84 Without another word, I left the room, and locked myself up in my own chamber. In about half an hour, he came to the door; and first he tried the handle, then he knocked.

"Won't you let me in, Helen?" said he.

"No; you have displeased me," I replied, "and I don't want to see your face or hear your voice again till the morning."

He paused a moment, as if dumbfoundered or uncertain how to answer such a speech, and then turned and walked away. This was only an hour after dinner: I knew he would find it very dull to sit alone all the evening; and this considerably softened my resentment, though it did not make me relent. I was determined to shew him that my heart was not his slave, and I could live without him if I chose; and I sat down and wrote a long letter to my aunt—of course telling her nothing of all this. Soon after ten o'clock, I heard him come up again; but he passed my door and went straight to his own dressing-room, where he shut himself in for the night.