dog;" and he sat down
suspiciously. "Won't you come and sit down?"

"Thank you. I prefer to stand."

"Do you know what you look like, standing there with your arms
crossed? You look like an angry goddess."

"If you mean that seriously, I don't understand you. If it is a
compliment, I don't like compliments."

"You are not very friendly," said George, whose temper was fast
getting the better of him.

"I am sorry. I do not wish to be unfriendly."

"So I hear that my ward has been staying here whilst I was ill."

"Yes, he was staying here."

"And I am also told that there was some boy-and-girl love affair
between you. I suppose that he indulged in a flirtation to wile away
the time."

Angela turned upon him, too angry to speak.

"Well, you need not look at me like that. You surely never expect to
see him again, do you?"

"If we both live, I shall certainly see him again; indeed, I shall, in
any case."

"You will never see him again."

"Why not?"

"Because he was only flirting and playing the fool with you. He is a
notorious flirt, and, to my certain knowledge, has been engaged to two
women before."

"I do not believe that that is true, or, if it is true, it is not all
the truth; but, true or untrue, I am not going to discuss Mr. Heigham
with you, or allow myself to be influenced by stories told behind his
back."

"Angela," said George, rising, and seizing her hand.

She turned quite pale, and a shudder passed over her frame.

"Leave my hand alone, and never dare to touch me again. This is the
second time that you have tried to insult me."

"So!" answered George, furious with outraged pride and baffled
passion, "you set up your will against mine, do you? Very well, you
shall see. I will crush you to powder. Insult you, indeed! How often
did that young blackguard insult you? I warrant he did more than take
your hand."

"If," answered Angela, "you mean Mr. Heigham, I shall leave you to
consider whether that term is not more applicable to the person who
does his best to outrage an unprotected woman, and take advantage of
the absent, than to the gentleman against whom you have used it;" and,
darting on him one glance of supreme contempt, she swept away like an
angry queen.

Left to his meditations, George shook his fist towards where she had
vanished.

"Very well, my fine lady, very well," he said, aloud. "You treat me as
so much dirt, do you? You shall smart for this, so sure as my name is
Geo