There  was  a  moment’s  silence.  Then  he  re¬
marked  abruptly:  “Did  anyone  ever  by  chance
tell  you  that  you  are  a  beautiful  woman?”

Anne  turned  swiftly,  and  for  a  brief  moment
her  eyes  blazed  and  there  were  ashen  shadows


WHAT  THE  STORM  BROUGHT  29


around  her  mouth.  Her  fingers  clutched  the
poker  tenaciously.
Rodney,  flecking  the  ashes  from  his  cigarette,
laughed  outright.  “By  Jove,  it’s  the  first  time
a  pretty  woman  ever  threatened  to  brain  me
with  a  poker  for  paying  her  a  compliment.”

Anne  gave  a  long,  drawn-out  sigh,  relaxed,
and  restored  the  poker  to  its  place.  “I’m  sorry
if  I  alarmed  you,”  she  said  apologetically.  “It
wasn’t  the  compliment.  In  fact,  I  wasn’t  think¬
ing  of  you  at  all.  I  was  thinking  of  men  in
general,  and  the  world  they  create  for  their
women  to  live  in.”

“I  quite  agree  with  you  on  that  score,”  Rod¬
ney  smiled  cynically.  “Most  men  are  rotters.”

“I’m  not  asking  for  sympathy,”  said  Anne;
adding:  “I’ve  read  that  wedded  life  even  among
savages  is  without  a  grain  of  love.”

“I’m  afraid  I  had  a  little  glimpse  of  the  sav¬
age  in  you,”  drawled  Rodney,  “as  you  stood
there  brandishing  that  poker  like  a  tomahawk.
