For a moment he tottered there like a stricken man, and then, with a hoarse cry, he turned and fled out through the open door.
"Poor devil!" said Hector, gazing in amazement after him.

"He seems hard hit anyhow.

But what is the meaning of all this, Laura ?" His face had darkened, and his mouth had set.
She had not said a word, but had stood with a face like a mask looking blankly in front of her.

Now she tore herself away from him, and, casting herself down with her face buried in the cushion of the sofa, she burst into a passion of sobbing.
"It means that you have ruined me," she cried.

"That you have ruined-ruined--ruined me! Could you not leave us alone?
Why must you come at the last moment?
A few more days, and we were safe.