Moths by Ouida — page 332: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

328 MOTHS. ness which is apt to exist in very pure and very prord natures, she thought only, ‘‘ If he come to me when I live alone, he toe will be a sare i And as a coward she would treat him, she thought; for her heart was but half awake still, and of passion she yet knew but little, and what she knew she feared as a thing unclean. Suddenly her door was burst open; her husband entered; his eyes were bloodshot, his face was black with fury. ‘ Are you mad?” he cried to her, as he saw her traveling jewel case and the locked valise and casket. She looked at him with a grand dignity upon her face, as though she saw something leprous and loathsome. / ‘‘T gave you your choice,” she said, in a voice that vibrated with restrained wrath. ‘‘ You took your choice.” She pointed to his letter that lay open on the table. ‘‘And I tell you that neither you nor she shall go out of my house!” he swore, with a great oath. ‘‘ You shall receive her, gmile on her, sit at the same table with her, please her in all things asIdo. She is the only woman that I never tire of, the only woman that contents me——” ‘¢Tell Paul de Sonnaz so; not me.” Her husband’s face grew terrible and hideous in the convulsions of his rage. ‘He! he is not a fool like you; he knows what the world is and women are. By Christ, how dare you?—how dare you speak to me of him or her? I am my own master, and [am ours. Sooner than let you insult my friends for one moment, would fling you from this window in the sea.” ‘‘T know that. Itis I who go, she who remains.” | ‘¢ Ag God lives, neither of you shall go. What! you think [ shall allow such a scandal as my wife’s departure from under my roof?” ‘¢T shall not allow such an outrage as for Madame de Sonnaz to be under your roof with me.” She spoke firmly and ina low tone and without violence, Something in her tone from its very calmness subdued and abashed him for an instant: but his hesitation scarcely lasted more than that. ‘‘ Madame de Sonnaz is my guest—my honored guest,” he said, passionately. ‘‘1I will not have her affronted. I will not have a breath on her name. What! you will make a scene that will ring through all Europe: you will go out of my house when my friends are in it! you will make yourself and her and me the by-words of society! Never, by heaven! You are my wife, and as my wife you stay.” Vere, who was very pale and as cold as though the summer morning were a winter’s day, remained quite calm. By great effort she restrained her bitter rage, her boundless scorn. But he changed her resolve in nothing. ‘I stay if Madame de Sonnaz go,’ she said, between her teeth. ‘‘If she stay, I go. I told ~~ you to choose;"you did choose.” Sergius Zouroff forgot that he was a gentleman, and all that was of manliness in him perished a his frenzy. He raised his - arm andstruck her. She staggerc:', and fell against the marble Baa Aan, ee | comicbooks.co ae