sort of beauty,--if beauty you persist in terming it;
and low birth and blood are visible in everything that appertains to
her. I never expected to see my brother condescend to the level of
opera-singers, and I am astonished at your infatuation. There! you
need not expect to blast me with that fiery look, and besides, you
know you mentioned her name, which I had scrupulously avoided. I
confess I am very proud of my family, and of you, its sole male
representative, and I wish it preserved from all taint."

"Untainted it shall remain, while a drop of the blood throbs in my
veins, and I, who am jealous of my honor, have carefully pondered the
matter, and maturely decided that he who entrusts his happiness to
Salome Owen will be indeed an enviable man, and pardonably proud of
his prize. Once I bartered myself away at the altar, and gave my name
and hand for wealth, for aristocratic antecedents, for fashionable
status, and five years of purgatorial misery was the richly merited
penalty for the insult I offered my heart. Death freed me, and for ten
years I have lived at least in peace, indulging no thought of a second
alliance, and merely amused, or disgusted by the matrimonial snares
that have lined my path. I no longer belong to that pitiable class who
feel constrained to marry for position, and who convert the
altar-steps into so many rounds of the social ladder; and I have
earned the right to indulge my outraged heart in any caprice that
promises to mellow, to gild the evening of my life with that
home-sunshine that was denied its gloomy tempestuous morning. My
future, my fortune, my social standing, my unblemished name, are all
my own,--and I shall exercise my privilege of bestowing them where and
when I please, heedless of the sneers and howls of disappointed
mercenary schemers. Come weal, come woe, I here announce that neither
you nor the world need hope to influence me one 'jot or tittle' in an
affair where I allow no impertinent interference. I warn you this is
the last time I shall permit even an indirect allusion to matters with
which you have no legitimate concern; and provided you do not obtrude
them upon me, it is a question of indifference to me what your opinion
and that of your 'circle' may chance to be. Constance, you here have
your ultimatum. Defy me, if you please, but prompt separation will
ensue; and you will unexpectedly find yourself _en route_ for America.
Peace or war? Before you decide, recollect th