Ashton had risen too; there was a look of bewildered amazement in his face; he tried to laugh. Even now he thought she was joking.
"Lallie--" he said hoarsely. He half held his hand to her. "Lallie--" he said again--but the cold contempt of her face struck the appeal from her lips.
He drew himself up with a poor attempt at dignity.
"So virtue is to be the order of the day, is it?" he said sneeringly. "Very well----" His eyes flamed as they rested on her face. "It makes one wonder why you are here--in Paris--alone!" he said insultingly--"If you are alone."
There was a little point of silence. For a moment Esther scanned his handsome face as if she were trying to remember what it was she had ever loved in him--his eyes!--but they were so cruel and insolent--his lips ... she shuddered, realising that in all her life she could never undo the memory of his kisses--then she pulled herself together with a great effort and turned away.
He followed. His amazement had gone now--he was merely furiously angry--his face was crimson--he caught her arm in a grip that hurt.
"My God, you're not going like this," he said furiously. "It's only a few weeks ago that you were crying round my neck and begging me not to throw you over. Oh, that hurts, does it?" he said as she winced. "I dare say you'd like all that wiped out and forgotten. But I've got a few letters to remember you by--a few letters that would hardly make pleasant reading for the next man who is fool enough to waste his time on you--and I promise you I'll send them along if it's Mellowes or any other man----"
"He wouldn't read them," she said passionately. "Send them if you like; but he wouldn't read them----" She was not conscious of the admission in her words--she only knew that the knowledge that Micky was there somewhere in the background gave her the strength to defy Ashton.
She saw the sudden fury that filled his eyes.
"Then--then you admit that it's Mellowes," he stammered. "That it's he who has taken my place--who has cut me out----" His voice changed to a sort of threat.
"I might have know what he meant to do. I might have guessed. Wait till I see him--wait till I get back to London."
Esther smiled--a little smile of security and confidence.