All at once Margaret knew that there was danger. She could not have
told how she knew it, nor just what the danger was, but she raised her
fair head suddenly, as the stag does when the scent of the hounds comes
down the breeze. Watching her, he saw and understood, and his hands
left each other and closed tightly upon the back of the chair.
'Will you take me back to Madame De Rosa, please?' Margaret asked, and
her voice did not shake.
Before he could answer, a flash of lightning filled the room, vivid as
flame, and almost purple; it flared and danced two or three times
before it went out.
If Logotheti spoke at all, his words were drowned in the crash that
shook the house and rolled away over the city. His eyes never moved
from Margaret's face; she felt that his gaze was fastened on her lips,
as if he would have drawn them to meet his own. She was not exactly
afraid, but she knew that she must get away from him, for he was
stronger than she, and he was like a man going mad. That was what she
would have called it. And it seemed to her that one of two things was
going to happen. Either she would let his lips reach hers, without
resisting, or else she would try to kill him when he came near her. She
did not know which she should do. She was in herself two people; the
one was a human woman, tempted by the mysterious sympathy of flesh and
blood; the other self was a startled maiden caught in a trap and at
bay, without escape.
With the great peal of thunder the Aphrodite trembled from head to
foot, twice, as the vibration ran down the walls of the house to the
very foundations and then came up again and died away, like the second
shock of an earthquake. The statue trembled as if it were alive and
afraid.
With a glance, Margaret measured the distance which separated her from
the door, but it was too far. There were half-a-dozen steps, and
Logotheti was much nearer to her than that, even allowing that he must
get past the chair to reach her.
Now he moved a little and it was too late to try. He was beside the
chair instead of behind it; but then he stopped and came no further
yet, while he spoke to her.
'Why did you come?' he asked in a low tone. 'You might have guessed
that it wasn't quite safe!' It was almost as if he were speaking to himself. She kept her eyes on
him, and tried to back away towards the door so slowly that he should
not notice it. But he smiled and his lids drooped.