My own agility was just enough to enable me to grip the
back of the fur coat and then catch her round the body before she
could wriggle herself out of the sleeves. She was muttering all
the time, "No, no, no." She abandoned herself to me just for an
instant during which I got her back to the middle of the room.
There she attempted to free herself and I let her go at once. With
her face very close to mine, but apparently not knowing what she
was looking at she repeated again twice, "No--No," with an
intonation which might well have brought dampness to my eyes but
which only made me regret that I didn't kill the honest Ortega at
sight. Suddenly Dona Rita swung round and seizing her loose hair
with both hands started twisting it up before one of the sumptuous
mirrors. The wide fur sleeves slipped down her white arms. In a
brusque movement like a downward stab she transfixed the whole mass
of tawny glints and sparks with the arrow of gold which she
perceived lying there, before her, on the marble console. Then she
sprang away from the glass muttering feverishly, "Out--out--out of
this house," and trying with an awful, senseless stare to dodge
past me who had put myself in her way with open arms.
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