"Is that you, Trina?"
She did not answer; but paused in the middle of the room, holding her
breath, trembling.
The dentist crossed the outside room, parted the chenille portieres,
and came in. He came toward her quickly, making as if to take her in his
arms. His eyes were alight.
"No, no," cried Trina, shrinking from him. Suddenly seized with the fear
of him--the intuitive feminine fear of the male--her whole being
quailed before him. She was terrified at his huge, square-cut head; his
powerful, salient jaw; his huge, red hands; his enormous, resistless
strength.
"No, no--I'm afraid," she cried, drawing back from him to the other side
of the room.
"Afraid?" answered the dentist in perplexity. "What are you afraid of,
Trina? I'm not going to hurt you. What are you afraid of?"
What, indeed, was Trina afraid of? She could not tell. But what did she
know of McTeague, after all? Who was this man that had come into her
life, who had taken her from her home and from her parents, and with
whom she was now left alone here in this strange, vast flat?
"Oh, I'm afraid. I'm afraid," she cried.
McTeague came nearer, sat down beside her and put one arm around her.
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