The
savage in him drew back abashed, aware of mastery.
Abruptly he released him and turned away. "You're a fool to tempt me," he
said. "And a still greater fool to take her seriously. As I tell you,
it's nothing but stage-fright. She had a touch of it yesterday. I'll come
round presently and make it all right."
"You can only make it right by setting her free," Scott made answer.
"There is no other course. Do you suppose I should have come to you in
this way if there had been?"
Sir Eustace was moving to the door by which he had entered. He flung a
backward look that was intensely evil over his shoulder at the puny
figure of the man behind him.
"I can imagine you playing any damned trick under the sun to serve your
own interests," he said, his lip curling in in an intolerable sneer. "But
the deepest strategy fails occasionally. You haven't been quite subtle
enough this time."
He was at the door as he uttered the last biting sentence, but so also
was Scott. With a movement of incredible swiftness and impetuosity he
flung himself forward. Their hands met upon the handle, and his remained
in possession, for in sheer astonishment Eustace drew back.
They faced one another in the evening light, Scott pale to the lips, in
his eyes an electric blaze that made them almost unbearably bright,
Eustace, heavy-browed, lowering, the red glare of savagery gleaming like
a smouldering flame, ready to leap forth in devastating fury to meet the
fierce white heat that confronted him.
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