He went out from the house and shook his ineffectual fists at the
stirring quiet of the stars.
He sent no notice of his coming back. Nor did he come back with a
definite plan. But he wanted to get at Amanda.
26
It was with Amanda he had to reckon. Towards Easton he felt
scarcely any anger at all. Easton he felt only existed for him
because Amanda willed to have it so.
Such anger as Easton did arouse in him was a contemptuous anger.
His devotion filled Benham with scorn. His determination to serve
Amanda at any price, to bear the grossest humiliations and slights
for her, his humility, his service and tenderness, his care for her
moods and happiness, seemed to Benham a treachery to human nobility.
That rage against Easton was like the rage of a trade-unionist
against a blackleg. Are all the women to fall to the men who will
be their master-slaves and keepers? But it was not simply that
Benham felt men must be freed from this incessant attendance; women
too must free themselves from their almost instinctive demand for an
attendant.
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