and tossed it at his
feet.

"Salome, you forget yourself!"

His stern displeasure rendered her reckless, and she continued,--

"True, sir. I did forget that the poor miller's child had no right to
obtrude her comeliness in the presence of the banker's daughter. I
confess my 'high crime and misdemeanor' against the pet of fortune,
and await my condign punishment. Is it your sovereign will that I
shear my shining locks like royal Berenice, and offer them in
propitiation? Or, does it seem 'good, meet, and your bounden duty,' to
have me promptly inoculated with small-pox, for the destruction of my
skin, which is unjustifiably smoother and clearer than--"

"Hush, hush!"

He laid his hand over her lips, and, for a while, there was an awkward
pause.

"If it were only possible to inoculate your heart with a little
genuine womanly charity,--if it were possible to persuade you to adopt
as your rule of conduct that golden one which Christ gave as a patent
of peace to all who followed it. But it is futile, hopeless. You will
not, you will not,--and my fluttering dove is at the mercy of a
famished eagle, already poised to swoop. I 'reckoned without my host'
when I so confidently appealed to your magnanimity, to your feminine
integrity of soul. You are a 'deaf adder that stoppeth her ear.'"

"Which will not 'hearken to the voice of the charmer, charm he
never so wisely.' Dr. Grey, what has the pampered heiress, the
happy _fiancee_ of that handsome man upstairs, to fear from the
poverty-stricken daughter of a miller, who you conscientiously
inform your guest passed from time to eternity through the gate
opened by delirium tremens. Mark you, my 'adder ears' have not been
sealed all the evening."

She had taken his hand from her lips, and thrown it from her.

"People who condescend to listen to conversations that are not
intended for them, generally deserve the punishment of hearing
unpleasant truths discussed. Salome, our interview is at an end."

"Not yet. Do you sincerely desire to see Muriel Mr. Granville's
wife?"

"I do, because I know that she is strongly attached to him."

"And you are sufficiently generous to sacrifice your happiness, in
order to promote hers? Oh, marvellous magnanimity!"

"Your insinuation is beneath my notice."

"How long have you known of her engagement?"

"Since the first interview I had with her, after her father's death."

"Let me see your face, Dr. Grey. If truth has not been hunted