He came nearer to her, but she did not recoil, for as a serpent holds its prey, so he held her.  She wanted to protest, to resist him fiercely, but she was mute.  Even the power to flee was taken from her.  She could only stand as if chained to the ground, stiff and paralyzed, awaiting his pleasure.  No nightmare terror had ever so obsessed her.  The agony of it was like a searing flame.

And Hyde, seeing her anguished helplessness, came nearer still with a sort of exultant deliberation, and put his arm about her as she stood.

“I thought I should win the trick,” he said, with a laugh that seemed to turn her to ice.  “Didn’t I tell you weeks ago that I had—­Hope?”

She did not attempt to answer or to resist.  Her lips were quite bloodless.  A surging darkness was about her, but yet she remained conscious—­vividly horribly conscious—­of the trap that had so suddenly closed upon her.  Through it she saw his face close to her own, with that sneering, devilish smile about his mouth that she knew so well.  And the eyes with their glittering savagery were mocking her—­mocking her.

Another instant and his lips would have pressed her own.  He held her fast, so fast that she felt almost suffocated.  It was the most hideous moment of her life.  And still she could neither move nor protest.  It seemed as if, body and soul, she was his prisoner.

But suddenly, unexpectedly, he paused.  His arms slackened and fell abruptly from her; so abruptly that she tottered, feeling vaguely for support.  She saw his face change as he turned sharply away.  And instinctively, notwithstanding the darkness that blinded her, she knew the cause.  She put her hand over her eyes and strove to recover herself.

XI

WITHOUT DEFENCE

When Hope looked up, the silence had become unbearable.  She saw Baring standing quite motionless near the window by which he had entered.  He was not looking at her, and she felt suddenly, crushingly, that she had become less than nothing in his sight, not so much as a thing, to be ignored.

Hyde, quite calm and self-possessed, still stood close to her.  But he had turned his back upon her to face the intruder.  And she felt herself to be curiously apart from them both, almost like a spectator at a play.

It was Hyde who at last broke the silence when it had begun to torture her nerves beyond endurance.

“Perhaps this rencontre is not as unfortunate as it looks at first sight,” he remarked complacently.  “It will save me the trouble of seeking an interview with you to explain what you are now in a position to see for yourself.  I believe a second choice is considered a woman’s privilege.  Miss Carteret, as you observe, has just availed herself of this.  And I am afraid that in consequence you will have to abdicate in my favour.”

Baring heard him out in complete silence.  As Hyde ended, he moved quietly forward into the room.  Hope felt him drawing nearer, but she could not face him.  His very quietness was terrible to her, and she was desperately conscious that she had no weapon of defence.