"I did not mean to frighten you--" But at his first word she clapped both hands over her ears, staring at him in horror--backing away from him, shrinking flat against the wall.
"Confound it! I am not threatening you," he said, raising his voice; but she would not hear another word--he saw that now--and, with a shrug, he walked past her, patient once more, outwardly polite, inwardly bitterly amused, as he heard the key snap in the door behind him.
Standing in his own office on the floor below, he glanced vacantly around him.

After a moment he said aloud, as though to somebody in the room: "Well, I tried it.

But that is not the way." Later, young Mrs.Malcourt, passing, saw him seated at his desk, head bent as though listening to something interesting.

But there was nobody else in the office.
When at last he roused himself the afternoon sun was shining level in the west; long rosy beams struck through the woods turning the silver stems of the birches pink.
On the footbridge spanning the meadow brook he saw his wife and Hamil leaning over the hand-rail, shoulder almost touching shoulder; and he went to the window and stood intently observing them.
They seemed to be conversing very earnestly; once she threw back her pretty head and laughed unrestrainedly, and the clear sound of it floated up to him through the late sunshine; and once she shook her head emphatically, and once he saw her lay her hand on Hamil's arm--an impulsive gesture, as though to enforce her words, but it was more like a caress.
A tinge of malice altered Malcourt's smile as he watched them; the stiffening grin twitched at his cheeks.
"Now I wonder," he thought to himself, "whether it is the right way after all!...

I don't think I'll threaten her again with--alternatives.
There's no telling what a fool might do in a panic." Then, as though the spectacle bored him, he yawned, stretched his arms and back gracefully, turned and touched the button that summoned his servant.
"Order the horses and pack as usual, Simmons," he said with another yawn.