or two of them, or
for all of them."

"You have tried to ruin him!" Isabel cried, white with suffering.

"On the contrary, I received my whole idea of this from you.
Nothing that I said to others about him was quite so bad as what
you said to me; for you knew the real reason of your discarding
him, and the reason was so bad--or so good--that you could not even
confide it to me, your natural confidant. You remember saying that
we must drop him from the list of our acquaintances, must not
receive him at the house, or recognize him in society, or speak, to
him in public. I protested that this would be very unjust to him,
and that he might ask me at least the grounds for so insulting him;
you assured me that he would never dare ask. And now you affect to
be displeased with me for believing what you said, and trying to
defend you from criticism, and trying to protect the good name of
the family."

"Ah," cried Isabel, "you can give fair reasons for foul deeds. You
always could. We often do, we women. The blacker our conduct, the
better the names with which we cover it. If you would only glory
openly in what you have done and stand by it! Not a word of what
you have said is true, as you have said it. When I left home not a
human being but yourself knew that there had been trouble between
Rowan and me. It need never have become public, had you let the
matter be as I asked you to do, and as you solemnly promised that
you would. It is you who have deliberately made the trouble and
scattered the gossip and spread the scandal. Why do you not avow
that your motive was revenge, and that your passion was not
justice, but malice. Ah, you are too deep a woman to try to seem
so shallow!"

"Can I be of any further service to you?" said Mrs. Conyers with
perfect politeness, rising. "I am sorry that the hour of my
engagement has come. Are you to be in town long?"

"I shall be here until I have undone what you have done," cried
Isabel, rising also and shaking with rage. "The decencies of life
compel me to shield you still, and for that reason I shall stay in
this house. I am not obliged to ask this as a privilege; it is my
right."

"Then I shall have the pleasure of seeing you often."

Isabel went up to her room as usual and summoned her maid, and
ordered her carriage to be ready in half an hour.

Half an hour later she came down and drove to the Hardages'. She
showed no pleasure in seeing him again, and he no