For a few seconds the man lay there,
then rose and ran till presently he vanished beneath the shadow of some
trees. There was tumult and confusion in the room; servants rushed in,
and one of the men, he who seemed to be the host, talked with them and
offered them money. The woman Bess began to revile her husband.
He took her by the arm and said:
"Will you follow that fellow through the window, or will you come with
me?"
Glancing at him, she saw something in his face that made her silent.
Then they went away together.
The scene changed. Barbara knew that now she saw her Aunt Thompson's
London house. In that drawing-room where she had parted from Mr.
Russell, her son and his wife stood face to face.
"How dare you?" she gasped through her set lips, glaring at him with
fierce eyes.
"How dare _you?_" he answered. "Did I marry you for this? I have given
you everything, my name, the wealth my old aunt left to me; you, you the
peasant's child, the evil woman whom I tried to lift up because I loved
you from the first."
"Then you were a fool for your pains, for such as I can't be lifted up."
"And you," he went on, unheeding, "go back to your mire and the herd of
your fellow-swine. You ask me how I dare.
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