"
He put down the hammer and came over to me without speaking.
Then, when he was quite close, he said:
"I am very sorry if I startled you. I did not flatter myself that
you would be profoundly affected, in any event."
"Oh, as to that," I said lightly, "it makes me ill for days if my
car runs over a dog." He looked at me in silence. "You are not
going to get up on that parapet again?"
"Mrs. Wilson," he said, without paying the slightest attention to
my question, "will you tell me what I have done?"
"Done?"
"Or have not done? I have racked my brains--stayed awake all of
last night. At first I hoped it was impersonal, that, womanlike
you were merely venting general disfavor on one particular
individual. But--your hostility is to me, personally."
I raised my eyebrows, coldly interrogative.
"Perhaps," he went on calmly--"perhaps I was a fool here on the
roof--the night before last. If I said anything that I should
not, I ask your pardon. If it is not that, I think you ought to
ask mine!"
I was angry enough then.
"There can be only one opinion about your conduct," I retorted
warmly. "It was worse than brutal. It--it was unspeakable. I have
no words for it--except that I loathe it--and you."
He was very grim by this time. "I have heard you say something
like that before--only I was not the unfortunate in that case.
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