With the strength and fury of a maniac he showered his blows above her, thudding upon the leather or crashing upon the woodwork, heedless of his own splintered hands.
"So I have silenced you," said he at last.

"I have stopped your words with my kisses before now.

But the world goes on, Francoise, and times change, and women grow false, and men grow stern." "You may kill me if you will," she moaned.
"I will," he said simply.
Still the carriage flew along, jolting and staggering in the deeply-rutted country roads.

The storm had passed, but the growl of the thunder and the far-off glint of a lightning-flash were to be heard and seen on the other side of the heavens.

The moon shone out with its clear cold light, silvering the broad, hedgeless, poplar-fringed plains, and shining through the window of the carriage upon the crouching figure and her terrible companion.