Boulte, isn't it rather a strange
question?'
'Will you tell me what he said?' repeated Mrs. Boulte. Even a tiger
will fly before a bear robbed of her whelps, and Mrs. Vansuythen
was only an ordinarily good woman. She began in a sort of
desperation: 'Well, he said that the never cared for you at all, and,
of course, there was not the least reason why he should have, and
and that was all.'
'You said he swore he had not cared for me. Was that true?'
'Yes,' said Mrs. Vansuythen very softly.
Mrs. Boulte wavered for an instant where she stood, and then fell
forward fainting.
'What did I tell you?' said Boulte, as though the conversation had
been unbroken. 'You can see for yourself. She cares for him.' The
light began to break into his dull mind, and he went on ' And he
what was he saying to you?'
But Mrs. Vansuythen, with no heart for explanations or
impassioned protestations, was kneeling over Mrs. Boulte.
'Oh, you brute!' she cried. 'Are all men like this? Help me to get her
into my room and her face is cut against the table. Oh, will you be
quiet, and help me to carry her? I hate you, and I hate Captain
Kurrell. Lift her up carefully, and now go! Go away!'
Boulte carried his wife into Mrs. Vansuythen's bedroom, and
departed before the storm of that lady's wrath and disgust,
impenitent and burning with jealousy.
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