"With the greatest alacrity," replied Steel, "when you have apologized
to my wife."
Rachel stood by without a word.
"For what?" cried Mrs. Venables. "For telling her what the whole world
thinks of her? Never; and you will unlock that door this instant, unless
you wish my husband to--to--horsewhip you within an inch of your life!"
Steel merely smiled; he could well afford to do so, lithe and supple as
he still was, with flabby Mr. Venables in his mind's eye.
"I might have known what to expect in this house," continued Mrs.
Venables, in a voice hoarse with suppressed passion, "what unmanly and
ungentlemanly behavior, what cowardly insults! I might have known!"
And she glanced from the windows to the bells.
"It is no use ringing," said Steel, with a shake of his snowy head, "or
doing anything else of the sort. I am the only person on the premises
who can let you out; your footman could not get in if he tried; but if
you like I shall shout to him to try. As for insults, you have insulted
my wife most cruelly and gratuitously, for I happen to have heard more
than you evidently imagine. In fact, 'insult' is hardly the word for
what even I have heard you say; let me warn you, madam, that you have
sailed pretty close to the wind already in the way of indictable
slander.
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