"You idiot!" she screamed. "Do you think I'm going with you?"
He flushed heavily. "Well, aren't you?" He paused, to stare at her, as she wrung her hands and sobbed with hysterical laughter. "I thought," he went on, slowly, "that you would possibly even insist on that."
"Oh, Lord, Lord, Lord!" She stamped her foot, and with both hands threw the tears from her eyes in wide and furious gestures.
"He told me you were married----"
"Did you let him think you hadn't known that?" demanded Corliss.
"I tell you I didn't let him think ANYTHING! He said you would never be able to get a divorce: that your wife hates you too much to get one from you, and that she'll never----"
"See here, Cora," he said harshly, "I told you I'd been married; I told you before I ever kissed you. You understood perfectly----"
"I did not! You said you HAD been. You laughed about it. You made me think it was something that had happened a long time ago. I thought of course you'd been divorced----"
"But I told you----"
"You told me after! And then you made me think you could easily get one--that it was only a matter of form and----"
"Cora," he interrupted, "you're the most elaborate little self-deceiver I ever knew. I don't believe you've ever faced yourself for an honest moment in----"
"Honest! YOU talk about `honest'! You use that word and face ME?"
He came closer, meeting her distraught eyes squarely. "You love to fool yourself, Cora, but the role of betrayed virtue doesn't suit you very well. You're young, but you're a pretty experienced woman for all that, and you haven't done anything you didn't want to. You've had both eyes open every minute, and we both know it. You are just as wise as----"
"You're lying and YOU know it! What did _I_ want to make Richard go into your scheme for? You made a fool of me."
"I'm not speaking of the money now," he returned quickly. "You'd better keep your mind on the subject. Are you coming away with me?"
"What for?" she asked.
"What FOR?" he echoed incredulously. "I want to know if you're coming. I promise you I'll get a divorce as soon as it's possible----"
"Val," she said, in a tone lower than she had used since he entered the room; "Val, do you want me to come?"
"Yes."
"Much?" She looked at him eagerly.
"Yes, I do." His answer sounded quite genuine.
"Will it hurt you if I don't?"
"Of course it will."
"Thank heaven for that," she said quietly.
"You honestly mean you won't?"
"It makes me sick with laughing just to imagine it! I've done some hard little thinking, lately, my friend--particularly last night, and still more particularly this morning since that man was here. I'd cut my throat before I'd go with you. If you had your divorce I wouldn't marry you--not if you were the last man on earth!"
"Cora," he cried, aghast, "what's the matter with you?
You're too many for me sometimes. I thought I understood a few kinds of women! Now listen: I've offered to take you, and you can't say----"
"Offered!" It was she who came toward him now. She came swiftly, shaking with rage, and struck him upon the breast.
"`Offered'! Do you think I want to go trailing around Europe with you while **** Lindley's money lasts? What kind of a life are you `offering' me? Do you suppose I'm going to have everybody saying Cora Madison ran away with a jail-bird? Do you think I'm going to dodge decent people in hotels and steamers, and leave a name in this town that--Oh, get out! I don't want any help from you! I can take care of myself, I tell you; and I don't have to marry YOU! I'd kill you if I could--you made a fool of me!" Her voice rose shrilly. "You made a fool of me!"
"Cora----" he began, imploringly.
"You made a fool of me!" She struck him again.
"Strike me," he said. "I love you "Actor!"
"Cora, I want you. I want you more than I ever----"
She screamed with hysterical laughter. "Liar, liar, liar! The same old guff. Don't you even see it's too late for the old rotten tricks?"
"Cora, I want you to come."
"You poor, conceited fool," she cried, "do you think you're the only man I can marry?"
"Cora," he gasped, "you wouldn't do that!"
"Oh, get out! Get out NOW! I'm tired of you. I never want to hear you speak again."
"Cora,"he begged. "For the last time----"
"NO! You made a fool of me!" She beat him upon the breast, striking again and again, with all her strength. "Get out, I tell you! I'm through with you!"
He tried to make her listen, to hold her wrists: he could do neither.
"Get out--get out!" she screamed. She pushed and dragged him toward the door, and threw it open. Her voice thickened; she choked and coughed, but kept on screaming: "Get out, I tell you!
Get out, get out, damn you! Damn you, DAMN you! get out!"
Still continuing to strike him with all her strength, she forced him out of the door.
