“How did you know I went out to-night?” she inquired in her turn.

“I had you watched.  After what happened last night I was suspicious.  I’ve been waiting for hours—­while you were out with that grafter, drinking, carousing—­”

He bent toward her, white with fury, but she blew the smoke from her cigarette into his face, and he checked himself, staring at her strangely.  For the first time he forgot his own injured feelings and perceived the insolent defiance in her expression.  It took him aback, for in all his aggressive, violent life of conquest no one had ever defied him, no one had ever insulted him nor deliberately set about rousing his ire.  But Lilas, he saw, was doing so, and with a purpose.  There was more in this woman’s bearing, he decided, than reckless defiance—­there was an intentional challenge and a threat.  Therefore with an effort he governed himself, recoiling in surprise.

She had seated herself upon the edge of the reading-table, one foot swinging idly.  She watched him with a brooding, insolent amusement.

“Are you just drunk,” he said, uncertainly, “or—­have you completely lost your senses?”

“Yes, I’m drunk, but I know what I’m doing.  I went out last night, and you warned me.  I went out again to-night and—­Oh yes!  I helped marry your friend’s son to a show-girl.  What are you going to do about it?”

“I—­why, you mustn’t talk like that; you’re not yourself, Lilas.”  He ran his eyes over the luxurious little room; he wiped his face with a shaky hand, feeling that it was he who had lost his senses.  “The wine is talking.  When I asked you to marry me I never dreamed—­”

“You never dreamed I’d disobey you, eh?  Well, I didn’t intend to so early.”  She laughed again.  “Now I suppose you’ll drop me.  What?”

“There’s nothing else to do, if this—­But I can’t imagine what possessed you.”

She eyed him silently with an expression he could not fathom, then asked, “Tell me, do you really care for me?”

Jarvis Hammon was a virile, headstrong man; his world had come suddenly, inexplicably to an end.  His voice was hoarse, as he answered: 

“Do you think I’d have made a fool of myself if I hadn’t?  Do you think I’d have ruined myself?”

“Have you ruined yourself?” she interrupted, quickly.

“Not quite, perhaps; but what I’ve lost, what I’ve sacrificed, would have ruined most men.  My home is gone, and my family—­as you know—­yes, and a good many other things you don’t know about.  Financially I’m not done for—­”

“That’s too bad.”

“Eh?”

She motioned him to proceed.

“You’ve cost me dear enough, as money goes, for you’ve gotten into my brain, somehow.  I was never foolish over women until I met you, but you made me lose my grip on things, and indirectly I paid high.  I didn’t care, though.  I was glad.  I wanted you at any price.  I tried to change the world around to suit me, and—­now you’ve spoiled it all.”