He released her, or rather she at last freed herself by an effort
he did not oppose, and she fled away down the path.
She had an impression that her hair would come down and that that
would make her look a fright, and she put up her hands hurriedly
to secure it. She never looked back to where he stood, breathing
heavily and looking after her and thinking not of her, but of two
dead men whom he had seen of late.
"Shall I make the third?" he wondered. "I do not care if I do,
not I."
The path Ella had fled by led into another along which when she
reached it she saw Deede Dawson coming.
She stopped at once and began to busy herself with a flower-bed
overrun with weeds, but she could not entirely conceal her agitation
from her stepfather's cold grey eyes.
"Oh, there you are, Ella," he said, with all that false geniality of
his that filled the girl with such loathing and distrust. "Have you
seen Dunn? Oh, there he is, isn't he? I wanted to ask you, Ella,
what do you think of Dunn?"
She glanced over her shoulder towards where Dunn stood, and she
managed to answer with a passable air of indifference.
"Well, I suppose," she said, "that he is quite the ugliest man I
ever saw. Of course, if he cut all of that hair off--"
Deede Dawson laughed though his eyes remained as hard and cold as
ever.
"I shall have to give him orders to shave," he said.
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