"
"But I am!" exclaimed Steel through his teeth.
Rachel's face was a mixture of surprise and incredulity.
"How can you know?" she asked coldly. "You were at least a hundred yards
away at the time, for I saw you with Morna Woodgate."
"And do you think my sight is not good for a hundred yards," retorted
Steel, "when you are at the end of them? I saw the whole thing--his
confusion and yours--but then I did not know who he was. He must have
been in the house when we arrived; otherwise I should have taken good
care that you never met. I saw enough, however, to bring me up in time
to see and hear more. I heard the way he was talking to you then; that
was his damned good-nature, and he has us at his mercy all the same."
Rachel had never seen her husband in such a passion; indeed, she had
never before known him in a state of mind to justify the use of such a
word. He was paler than his wont, his eyes brighter, his lips more
bloodless. Rachel experienced a strange sense of advantage, at once
unprecedented and unforeseen, and with it an irresistible temptation to
the sort of revenge which she knew to be petty at the time. But he had
made her suffer; for once it was her turn.
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