"Everything has gone wrong," she said, pouting. "Even you have changed!"
She looked at him with a look of a tired child, longing to climb into his lap to be consoled.
"Teddy, have I offended you?" she asked gently, seeing that she could not unbend him by playing upon his sympathy.
She would have preferred any answer but this.
"Why wouldn't you go with me tonight?" she said quickly.
"Because I have another engagement," he said, instinctively glancing at the clock.
She saw the look, sprang up from the rug furiously, and leaping toward the mantelpiece seized the offending clock and flung it across the room in a tantrum.
"Go to your Emma Fornez!" she said, stamping her foot. "If you are going to sit here and measure the minutes, you can go!"
He rose, startled at the passion of jealousy he had aroused.
"I told you I had an engagement," he began.
"Nonsense!" she burst out, still the prey of her anger. "You know very well you can keep her waiting half an hour if you wish, and you know very well that you can put off your engagement to-night--or is it with her, always with her?"
"I don't care to discuss my engagements," he said coldly, an emotion which he was far from feeling, for the sudden wild-eyed fury into which he had plunged her awoke in him something that thrilled him, as he had been thrilled the day he had returned Mrs. Bloodgood to her home, at the thought of what a consuming passion might be.
"Why do you tag around with her?" she continued heedlessly. "I should think you'd have more regard for your dignity--for what people think--Emma Fornez--ah!"
She stopped, pressing her handkerchief to her eyes and then, feeling he had perceived it, she exclaimed: "If I cry it's because I am disappointed--disillusionized--angry!"
She turned her back and went quickly to the window where the little Dresden clock lay shattered in a corner. She picked it up and looked at it, swallowing her anger. Then, as he continued to keep the silence, she came back, without looking at him, placed the clock on the mantelpiece again and said coldly:
"Well, it is time for you to go--not to keep her waiting."
"Good-afternoon," he said with a bow, and left the apartment.
When he reached the street, he was overcome with surprise.