Then at last he turned to the imprisoned lady.
"You are quite right, Mrs.Venables.It is the last conversation we are likely to have together.

The greater the pity to cut it short!" "Will you have the goodness to let me go ?" the visitor demanded, white and trembling, but not yet unimpressive in her tremendous indignation.
"With the greatest alacrity," replied Steel, "when you have apologized to my wife." Rachel stood by without a word.
"For what ?" cried Mrs.Venables.

"For telling her what the whole world thinks of her?
Never; and you will unlock that door this instant, unless you wish my husband to--to--horsewhip you within an inch of your life!" Steel merely smiled; he could well afford to do so, lithe and supple as he still was, with flabby Mr.Venables in his mind's eye.
"I might have known what to expect in this house," continued Mrs.
Venables, in a voice hoarse with suppressed passion, "what unmanly and ungentlemanly behavior, what cowardly insults! I might have known!" And she glanced from the windows to the bells.
"It is no use ringing," said Steel, with a shake of his snowy head, "or doing anything else of the sort.

I am the only person on the premises who can let you out; your footman could not get in if he tried; but if you like I shall shout to him to try.

As for insults, you have insulted my wife most cruelly and gratuitously, for I happen to have heard more than you evidently imagine.