"And take the rest of your punishment!"
Truly Dinah drank the cup of bitterness to the dregs that night. Mentally
she had suffered till she had almost ceased to feel. But physically her
powers of endurance had not been so sorely tried. But her nerves were
strung to a pitch when even a sudden movement made her tingle, and upon
this highly-tempered sensitiveness the punishment now inflicted upon her
was acute agony. It broke her even more completely than it had broken her
in childhood. Before many seconds had passed the last shred of her
self-control was gone.
Guy Bathurst, lying comfortably in bed, was aroused from his first
slumber by a succession of sharp sounds like the lashing of a loosened
creeper against the window, but each sound was followed by an anguished
cry that sank and rose again like the wailing of a hurt child.
He turned his head and listened. "By Jove! That's too bad of Lydia," he
said. "I suppose she won't be satisfied till she's had her turn, but I
shall have to interfere if it goes on."
It did not go on for long; quite suddenly the cries ceased. The other
sounds continued for a few seconds more, then ceased also, and he turned
upon his pillow with a sigh of relief.
A minute later he was roused again by the somewhat abrupt entrance of his
wife. She did not speak to him, but stood by the door and rummaged in the
pockets of his shooting-coat that hung there.
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