Immediately the car came she moved towards it, though before it could start, the trolley-pole would have to be changed round. Rasponi saw her into it, lifted his hat, and to her surprise went off at once. He did not even turn round. She would have given anything to be by his side, but was committed to her perverse choice. She watched him till he was no more than a speck near the central fountain.

V

Looking back afterwards she was no more able to trace the hurried sequence of events which led to her marriage with Mario Rasponi than one is able to relate the procession of incidents in a dream. Indeed it took its place appropriately in what was still a dream life. Outwardly there was an admirable semblance of intention, even of calm. But the girl was not yet near waking, and she proceeded in a kind of deliberate trance which brooked neither interference from without, nor direction by her own shrouded intelligence.

One of the strangest things in the strange business was that Mario never persuaded her into saying that she loved him. She was captured by his ardour; and after the first weak resistance worked, defiant of opposition, for their speedy marriage. But often she still cried at nights for Bob, and felt as if she must go mad in her renewed efforts towards understanding him. Twice she wrote to him. Surely if there was a scrap of real feeling in him for her, it would show now? But he remained aloof. He begged her to be sure of her own mind, wished her good luck, whatever her decision. In spite of this, Joanna would have gone to him had he been in England. She believed that a sight of his face might have held her firm against Mario. But while awaiting the result of his examination, he was with his father in Germany.

And all the time Mario’s onslaught continued.

The researches which had brought him to Glasgow were complete. He wanted to get back to Italy where there was work after his own heart for the asking; and he was set on taking Joanna with him whether he won her love or not. His judgment told him that her quick consent was a likelihood; for love there would be time enough later. Actually he preferred it so. It satisfied an insane violence that was part of him.