Page:The wheels of chance -- a bicycling idyll.djvu/114

100 She turned upon him, her eyes and cheeks glowing, her hands clenched. "You unspeakable cad," she said, and choked, stamped her little foot, and stood panting.

"Unspeakable cad! My dear girl! Possible I am an unspeakable cad. Who wouldn't be—for you?"

"'Dear girl!' How dare you speak to me like that? You—"

"I would do anything—"

"Oh!"

There was a moment's pause. She looked squarely into his face, her eyes alight with anger and contempt, and perhaps he flushed a little. He stroked his moustache, and by an effort maintained his cynical calm. "Let us be reasonable," he said.

"Reasonable! That means all that is mean and cowardly and sensual in the world."

"You have always had it so—in your generalising way. But let us look at the facts of the case—if that pleases you better."

With an impatient gesture she motioned him to go on.

"Well," he said,—"you've eloped."

"I've left my home," she corrected, with dignity. "I left my home because it was unendurable. Because that woman—"