I am but a mantua-maker and you are a nobleman,
you offer me _dishonor_ in place of honor, and expect that I shall
accept it as befitting my position."

"You use harsh language, my dear Mademoiselle Melanie,--language that"--

"That clearly expresses your meaning, and therefore sounds harshly. I am
accustomed to speak plainly myself, and to strip of their flowery
_entourage_ the sentiments to which I listen. It may be an ungraceful
habit, but it is a safe one. I am persuaded that if vice were always
called by its true name, shame, misery, and ruin would darken fewer
lives."

"Your candor is one of your greatest charms," said Lord Linden, who was
deeply impressed by her singular and open treatment of a proposition
which it had cost him a struggle to make.

"I am glad that you approve of my frankness, for I must be franker
still. When I asked you a favor I was impelled by motives which may
perhaps be explained to you hereafter; I was exceedingly unwilling to
make the request which you so promptly accorded,--but the strength of
those motives urged me to set aside prudence and reserve. I will not
pretend to conceal that I feared you might be placed upon a footing of
less restraint through the performance of the service I solicited at
your hands, and that you might make your visits more frequent than I
should be inclined to permit,--but I did not dream that the price you
set upon the performance of this act of kindness was the privilege of
offering me an insult."

"An insult? You do not imagine--you cannot suppose that I had any such
intention?"

"You have spoken too plainly, my lord, to leave anything to my
_imagination_; possibly, however, you may be acquainted with some fine
phrase, unknown to me, in which you would couch what I have plainly
styled, and as plainly comprehend to be an insult. Your advocacy with
Mr. Rutledge has brought about a result which will benefit one
who--who--who has the strongest claims upon me, and, under ordinary
circumstances, I should have been your debtor. As it is, you and I are
quits! The privilege of insulting me will suffice you! And now, my lord,
you will excuse me, if, being a woman who earns her livelihood and whose
time is valuable, I bring this interview to a close."

Madeleine, as she spoke, rose and courtesied, and would have passed out
of the room; but Lord Linden, forgetting himself for a moment, prevented
her exit by springing between her and the door.

"You will not le