Page:The woman, the man, and the monster (IA womanmanmonster00dawe).pdf/266

 “You do not ‘believe him!” she gasped.

“Not a word,” he said. She slipped her hand in his. Her fingers, which had been like ice, were now burning as with fever.

“Yet who should know better than you that I am speaking the truth? In any case it cannot alter the matter. Not being responsible for her actions, this woman is not fit to be at large. Though, so far, you appear not to see the matter in this light, I can assure you that I am about to relieve you of an intolerable burden. The care is mine, worse luck; another of the many crosses which have been heaped upon me by inconsiderate fate.”

“Until that care has merged into brutality?”

“So that is the story? I don’t know why I listen to you, unless it is the result of that sympathy for a mutual victim. A fellow feeling, my dear sir. We must stop these mad pranks. She must make no more fools of men.”

Though his voice was still steady enough, his manner a strained composure, his eyes began to dart wild glances round the room. The veins in them seemed to grow more prominent, the glitter more cruelly fierce, while his lower