If
you come a single inch nearer to me, one of them shall shoot you."
"Your friend or your husband, eh?" he scoffed.
She waved him on.
"I think," she told him, "that either of them would be quite
capable of ridding the world of a coward like you."
"A coward?" he repeated.
"Precisely! Isn't it a coward's part to terrorise a woman?"
"I don't want to terrorise you," he said sulkily.
"Well, you must admit that you haven't shown any particular desire
to make yourself agreeable," she pointed out.
He turned suddenly upon her.
"I am a fool, I know," he declared bitterly. "I'm an awkward,
nervous, miserable fool, my own worst enemy as they say of me in
the Mess, turning the people against me I want to have like me,
stumbling into every blunder a fool can. I'm the sort of man
women make sport of, and you've done it for them cruelly,
perfectly."
"Captain Griffiths!" she protested. "When have I ever been
anything but kind and courteous to you?"
"It isn't your kindness I want, nor your courtesy! There's a curse
upon my tongue," he went on desperately. "I'm not like other men.
I don't know how to say what I feel. I can't put it into words.
Every one misunderstands me. You, too! Here I rode up to you this
afternoon and my heart was beating for joy, and in five minutes I
had made an enemy of you.
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