"Give me the key with which you opened the safe," he said coldly.
She had replaced the key in her pocket, and now sought it with a
shaking hand. She gave it to him without a word. Morally she would not
acknowledge herself beaten, and the bitterness of that moment was the
self-contempt with which she realized a physical cowardice which she
had hitherto deemed quite impossible. For the flesh is always surprised
by its own weakness.
Von Holzen looked at the key critically, turning it over in order to
examine the workmanship. It was clumsily enough made, and he doubtless
guessed how she had obtained it. Then he glanced at her as she stood
breathless with a colourless face and compressed lips.
"I hope I did not hurt you," he said quietly, thereby putting in a dim
and far-off claim to greatness, for it is hard not to triumph in
absolute victory.
She shook her head with a twisted smile, and looked down at her hands,
which were still helpless. There were bands of bright red round the
white wrists. Her gloves lay on the table. She went towards them and
numbly took them up. He was impassive still, and his face, which had
flushed a few moments earlier, slowly regained its usual calm pallor.
It was this very calmness, perhaps, that suddenly incensed Mrs.
Vansittart. Or it may have been that she had regained her courage.
"Yes," she cried, with a sort of break in her voice that made it
strident--"yes.
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