She was pale, so pale that the
blue veins on her forehead showed distinctly through her ivory skin,
and there was a curious intensity about her manner which frightened
him. She was very quiet also, unnaturally so, indeed; but her quiet
was of the ominous nature of the silence before the storm, and when
she spoke her words were keen, and quick, and vivid.
She did not shake hands with him, but sat down and looked at him,
slowly fanning herself with a painted ivory fan which she took up from
the table.
"You sent for me, Belle, and here I am," he said, breaking the
silence.
Then she spoke. "You told me the other day," she said, "that you were
not engaged to be married to Ida de la Molle. It is not true. You are
engaged to be married to her."
"Who said so?" he asked defiantly. "Quest, I suppose?"
"I have it on a better authority," she answered. "I have it from Miss
de la Molle herself. Now, listen, Edward Cossey. When I let you go, I
made a condition, and that condition was that you should /not/ marry
Ida de la Molle. Do you still intend to marry her?"
"You had it from Ida," he said, disregarding her question; "then you
must have spoken to Ida--you must have told her everything. I
suspected as much from her manner the other night. You----"
"Then it is true," she broke in coldly.
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