you!"

Madeleine was about to answer, but he frustrated her intention and went
on,--

"You were lost to me for six months, yet I could not forget you. I
sought you unceasingly, and thought to find you in the society
of--of--of those who are not, in reality, your superiors--not your
equals even; I found you at last--but let me pass that over; since I
have had the happiness of seeing you again, every moment has increased
my admiration,--my devotion."

Madeleine would have interrupted him, but was again prevented.

"If I had not the misfortune to be a nobleman, if I were not accountable
to my family for the connection I formed, I would say to you, 'Will you
honor me by becoming my wife?' Never have I met a woman who united in a
higher degree all the attributes which are most beautiful in my
eyes,--all that man could desire in a companion,--all the charms of
person, intellect, soul!"

Madeleine took advantage of a moment's pause, for his lordship found it
sufficiently difficult to proceed, and replied, with glacial dignity,--

"Were all your compliments as merited as you perhaps persuade yourself
to imagine them to be, they would not alter the fact, my lord, that
_you_ are a nobleman and _I_ a dress-maker."

"True," replied Lord Linden, undaunted by her chilling demeanor; "and it
is not easy to break the iron bonds of conventionality. But, if the
difference of our rank prevents my enjoying the triumph of presenting
such a woman to the world as my wife, it does not prevent my renouncing
the whole world for her,--it does not prevent my devoting my life to
her,--my sharing with her some happy seclusion where I can forget
everything except my vow to be hers only."

This time Madeleine allowed him to conclude without word or movement.
She sat with her eyes fastened upon the ground, and though a bright,
crimson spot burned on either cheek, her manner was as calm as though
the offer just made her were full of honor. When it was unmistakable
that he had finished speaking and awaited her answer, she said, in a
firm voice, the mild serenity of which could not fail to penetrate the
breast of the man who had just insulted her,--

"In other words, my lord, you have in the most delicate phrases in which
infamy can be couched,--in phrases that are as flowers to hide the
serpent beneath them, given me to understand that were I of your own
rank you would address me as a man of honor might, and expect me to
listen to you; but, as