ears tingling, put force upon
himself and sat mute, his eyes on the board. He would not look round, he
would not acknowledge what was passing. Basterga's tone conveyed a
meaning coarser and more offensive than the words he spoke; and Claude
knew it, and knew that the girl, at whom he dared not look knew it, as
she stood helpless, a butt, a target for their gloating eyes. He would
not look for he remembered. He saw the scalding liquid blister the skin,
saw the rounded arm quiver with pain; and remembering and seeing, he was
resolved that the lesson should not be lost on him. If it was only by
suffering he could serve her, he would serve her.

He dared not look even at Gentilis, who sat opposite him; and who was
staring in gross rapture at the girl's confusion, and the burning
blushes, so long banished from her pale features. For to look at that
mean mask of a man was the same thing as to strike! Unfortunately, as it
happened, his silence and lack of spirit had a result which he had not
foreseen. It encouraged the others to carry their brutality to greater
and even greater lengths. Grio flung a gross jest in the girl's face:
Basterga asked her mockingly how long she had loved. They got no answer;
on which the big man asked his question again, his voice grown menacing;
and still she would not answer. She had taken refuge from Grio's
coarseness in the farthest corner of the hearth: where stooping over a
pot, she hid her burning face. Had they gone too far at last? So far,
that in despair she had made up her mind to resist? Claude wondered. He
hoped that they had.

Basterga, too, thought it possible; but he smiled wickedly, in the pride
of his resources. He struck the table sharply with his knife-haft.
"What?" he cried. "You don't answer me, girl? You withstand me, do you?
To heel! To heel! Stand out in front of me, you jade, and answer me at
once. There! Stand there! Do you hear?" With a mocking eye he indicated
with his knife the spot that took his fancy.

She hesitated a moment, scarlet revolt in her face; she hesitated for a
long moment; and the lad thought that surely the time had come. But then
she obeyed. She obeyed! And at that Claude at last looked up; he could
look up safely now for something, even as she obeyed, had put a bridle
on his rage and given him control over it. That something was doubt. Why
did she comply? Why obey, endure, suffer at this man's hands that which
it was a shame a woman should suffer at