a.

"Oh, did you?" Sally slipped off her coat, and threw it upon a chair.
She was listening intently.

"Wasn't it?" Gaga did not touch her. He looked down with a startled
expression. "It looked like a man out there.... Wasn't it?"

"You'd better go out and see," advised Sally, with snapping teeth. "Then
you'll be sure." As a fury possessed her, she turned upon him like a cat
at bay, all her teeth showing. "Funny if you were spying on me without
any reason, wouldn't it be!"

She was so reckless that she did not measure consequences. She was in no
mood to be cautious or considerate. Leaving him there Sally went into
the dining-room, and when Gaga entered upon her heels she went out of
the room again and slowly up the stairs.

xvii

But all the time, although she seemed to ignore him, Sally with a part
of her consciousness was listening and watching. She dreaded to hear the
groan of the gate upon its rusted hinges, the noise of a knock, or the
gentle sound which the front door would make if Gaga accepted her
challenge. Her heart was almost silent as she waited, and then, as the
minutes passed without interruption, her relaxation was half relief and
half disappointment. Something within her had craved this crisis which
had not arrived. Some sensual longing for violence was frustrate. Sally
was alone with Gaga, and Gaga, humble and obedient, was in her track,
coming slowly and affectionately after her. As she saw from the landing
the top of his dark, grey-streaked head she almost screamed with fury.
It was in that moment that aversion for him rose in a tumult from her
heart. She hated Toby, but for his base cruelty alone. She hated Gaga
for his inescapable possessiveness and gentle persecution. It was a
horror to Sally in her abnormal condition. She began to run up the next
flight of stairs, and tripped upon her skirt. The stumble brought some
little sense to her. She rose, holding the balustrade. Shot through and
through with bitterness as she was, she yet clutched at sanity. When
Gaga came abreast of her Sally took his arm; and they completed the
journey together.

"Sorry I was beastly," she said, with a little pinch of the arm. "Got
the jumps."

"I know.... I know," whispered Gaga. "We'll go away. We'll go very ...
very soon."

"Now?" Sally demanded. "To-morrow? Could we go to-morrow?"

"Well ... well, perhaps not ... to-morrow. The day after?" He was
hesitant, and did not oppose her. Sally's lip curled. Wh