r was a greater mistake. I went to
Matching as the friend of my dear friend;--but I stayed
there at your request, as your friend. Had I been, when
you asked me to do so, a participator in that secret I
could not have honestly remained in the position you
assigned to me. Had I done so, I should have deserved your
ill opinion. As it is I have not deserved it, and your
condemnation of me has been altogether unjust. Should I
not now receive from you a full withdrawal of all charge
against me, I shall be driven to think that after all
the insight which circumstances have given me into your
character, I have nevertheless been mistaken in the
reading of it.

I remain,
Dear Duke of Omnium,
Yours truly,

M. FINN.

I find on looking over my letter that I must add one word
further. It might seem that I am asking for a return of
your friendship. Such is not my purpose. Neither can you
forget that you have accused me,--nor can I. What I expect
is that you should tell me that you in your conduct to me
have been wrong and that I in mine to you have been right.
I must be enabled to feel that the separation between us
has come from injury done to me, and not by me.

He did read the letter more than once, and read it with tingling
ears, and hot cheeks, and a knitted brow. As the letter went on, and
as the woman's sense of wrong grew hot from her own telling of her
own story, her words became stronger and still stronger, till at
last they were almost insolent in their strength. Were it not that
they came from one who did think herself to have been wronged, then
certainly they would be insolent. A sense of injury, a burning
conviction of wrong sustained, will justify language which otherwise
would be unbearable. The Duke felt that, and though his ears were
tingling and his brow knitted, he could have forgiven the language,
if only he could have admitted the argument. He understood every word
of it. When she spoke of tenacity she intended to charge him with
obstinacy. Though she had dwelt but lightly on her own services she
had made her thoughts on the matter clear enough. "I, Mrs. Finn, who
am nobody, have done much to succour and assist you, the Duke of
Omnium; and this is the return which I have received!" And then she
told him to his face that unless he did something which it would be
impossible that he should do, she would revoke her opinion of his
hone