Trenby, who had been standing staring into the fire, turned at the sound of her entrance. He looked dog-tired, and his eyes were sunken as though sleep had not visited them recently. At the sight of her a momentary expression of what seemed to be unutterable relief flashed across his face, then vanished, leaving him with bent brows and his under-jaw thrust out a little.
"Yes," he replied gruffly. "Are you surprised to see me?"
"Certainly I am. Why have you come? Why have you followed me here?"
"I've come to take you back," he said arrogantly.
"You might have saved yourself the trouble," she flashed back angrily. "I'm not coming. I'll return when I've finished my visit to Penelope."
"You'll come back with me now--to-night," he replied doggedly. "We can catch the night mail and I've a car waiting below."
"Then it can wait! Good heavens, Roger! D'you think I'll submit to be made a perfect fool of--fetched back like a child?"
"And do you think that _I'll_ submit to be made a fool of?" he asked in a voice of intense anger. "To be made a fool of by your rushing away from my house in my absence--to have the servants gossiping--not to know what has become of you--"
"I left a note for you," she interrupted. "And you didn't believe what I told you in it."
"No," he acknowledged. "I didn't. I was afraid . . . Good God, Nan!" he broke out with sudden passion. "Haven't you any idea of what I've been through this last forty-eight hours? . . . It's been hell!"
"I don't understand," she said impatiently. "Please explain."
"Explain? Can't you understand?" His face darkened. "You said you couldn't marry me--you asked me to release you! And then--after that!--I come home to find you gone--gone with no word of explanation, and the whole household buzzing with the story that you've run away! I waited for a letter from you, and none came. Then I wired--to safeguard you I wired from Exeter. No answer! What was I to think? . . . What _could_ I think but that you'd gone? Gone to some other man!"
"Do you suppose if I'd left you for someone else I should have been afraid to tell you? That I should have written an idiotic note like that? . . . How dared you wire to Penelope? It was abominable of you!"
"Why didn't she reply? I thought they must be away--"