And he turned on his heel and sneaked out.

Mr. Pomeroy laughed insolently.  ‘There is still Tommy,’ he said.  ’Try him.  See what he’ll say to you.  It amuses me to hear you plead, my dear; you put so much spirit into it.  As my lord said, before we came in, ’tis as good as a play.’

She flung him a look of scorn, but did not answer.  For Mr. Thomasson, he shuffled his feet uncomfortably.  ‘There are no horses,’ he faltered, cursing his indiscreet companion.  ’Mr. Pomeroy means well, I know.  And as there are no horses, even if nothing prevented you, you could not go to-night, you see.’

Mr. Pomeroy burst into a shout of laughter and clapped the stammering tutor (fallen miserably between two stools) on the back.  ’There’s a champion for you!’ he cried.  ’Beauty in distress!  Lord! how it fires his blood and turns his look to flame!  What! going, Tommy?’ he continued, as Mr. Thomasson, unable to bear his raillery or the girl’s fiery scorn, turned and fled ignobly.  ’Well, my pretty dear, I see we are to be left alone.  And, damme! quite right too, for we are the only man and the only woman of the party, and should come to an understanding.’

Julia looked at him with shuddering abhorrence.  They were alone; the sound of the tutor’s retreating footsteps was growing faint.  She pointed to the door.  ‘If you do not go,’ she cried, her voice shaking with rage, ’I will rouse the house!  I will call your people!  Do you hear me?  I will so cry to your servants that you shall not for shame dare to keep me!  I will break this window and cry for help?’

‘And what do you think I should be doing meanwhile?’ he retorted with an ugly leer.  ’I thought I had shown you that two could play at that game.  But there, child, I like your spirit!  I love you for it!  You are a girl after my own heart, and, damme! we’ll live to laugh at those two old women yet!’

She shrank farther from him with an expression of loathing.  He saw the look, and scowled, but for the moment he kept his temper.  ’Fie! the Little Masterson playing the grand lady!’ he said.  ’But there, you are too handsome to be crossed, my dear.  You shall have your own way to-night, and I’ll come and talk to you to-morrow, when your head is cooler and those two fools are out of the way.  And if we quarrel then, my beauty, we can but kiss and make it up.  Look on me as your friend,’ he added, with a leer from which she shrank, ’and I vow you’ll not repent it.’

She did not answer, she only pointed to the door, and finding that he could draw nothing from her, he went at last.  On the threshold he turned, met her eyes with a grin of meaning, and took the key from the inside of the lock.  She heard him insert it on the outside, and turn it, and had to grip one hand with the other to stay the scream that arose in her throat.  She was brave beyond most women; but the ease with which he had mastered her, the humiliation of contact with him, the conviction of her helplessness in his grasp lay on her still.  They filled her with fear; which grew more definite as the light, already low in the corners of the room, began to fail, and the shadows thickened about the dingy furniture, and she crouched alone against the barred window, listening for the first tread of a coming foot—­and dreading the night.