That night Tempest found occasion to go into Grange's back-parlour for the first time. Moosta only was there, among her babies; and, as usual, her English and her comprehension fled before Tempest. But he looked at that face which hung in its dark beauty below the Madonna; and Moosta, in her pride, dragged Dick's portfolio from the corner, and spread it before him.
"Him s'pose Andree trés jolie," she said. "Goot, eh?"
"Very good," assented Tempest, and laid his hands upon those bold, merciless paintings with their alluring dashes of colour and their suggestive tragedies.
And then he went home, and he did not sleep at all. Dick had interpreted Andree's beauty as even Tempest had never realised it. There were faults, plenty of them, in the workmanship; but the power was undeniable. And Dick had done more, much more. He had shown out the animal side of her terribly, callously, and yet with that strange charm which made men love Andree even when they recoiled from her. Those pictures were clever, cruelly clever. Dick had never done such good work before, and he would not do it again. For not again would he have such a model or such a reason. Tempest threshed from side to side of his bed, burning with a righteous anger and grief.
Dick was his friend: his friend. And Andree was the woman he loved. And it was Dick who was taking Andree away from him. Dick who had perhaps been doing it all these months. Dick, who had reviled her, laughed at her, urged Tempest to shake himself free of her. Dick, who had held her up to contempt as he now held her up to the unlawful admiration of any man who happened to stray into Grange's back-parlour. Tempest shivered, guessing for how many eyes Moosta might have dragged out that portfolio with her placid grins and her "Goot, eh?" To Tempest in his reverence the thing was an indecency, a profanity, an outrage. His fury against Dick became a live thing through that night; but he said no word to the man because the thought of the woman over-rode all else in his heart. He must get Andree away from this life—now, at once. By bribery, by stratagem, by persuasion—
