But voices and feet passed over
my head, went up and up, higher and higher; and I was wondering
whether or not to make a dash for it, when one light pair came
running down again, and in very despair I marched out to meet my
preserver, looking as little as I could like the abject thing I felt.
"Be quick!" she cried in a harsh whisper, and pointed peremptorily
to the porch.
But I stood stubbornly before her, my heart hardened by her hardness,
and perversely indifferent to all else. And as I stood I saw the
letter she had written, in the hand with which she pointed, crushed
into a ball.
"Quickly!" She stamped her foot. "Quickly - if you ever cared!"
This in a whisper, without bitterness, without contempt, but with
a sudden wild entreaty that breathed upon the dying embers of my
poor manhood. I drew myself together for the last time in her
sight. I turned, and left her as she wished - for her sake, not
for mine. And as I went I heard her tearing her letter into little
pieces, and the little pieces falling on the floor.
Then I remembered Raffles, and could have killed him for what he
had done.
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