"Oh, Fabian!" she screamed at last. "Do not talk to me so. You will
frighten me into hysterics."

"Now don't make a noise. For if you do, you will precipitate the
catastrophe that you fear. Be quiet, I beg you," said Mr. Fabian,
composedly, putting his thumbs in his vest pockets and leaning back.

"Why do you say such cruel things to me, then? Such inconsistent
things, too. If I was good enough to marry you, I was good enough to
marry your father."

"But you were never good enough to marry either of us, my dear. If you
will take a little time to reflect on your antecedents, you will
acknowledge that you were not quite good enough to marry any honest
man," said Mr. Fabian, coolly.

"Yet you asked me to marry you," she said, sobbing softly, with her
handkerchief to her eyes.

"Beg pardon, my dear. I think the asking was rather on the other side.
You were very urgent that we should be married, and that our betrothal
should be formally announced."

"Yes; because you led me to believe that you were going to marry me."

"Excuse me. I never led you to believe so, simply allowed you to believe
so. What could a gentleman do under the circumstances? He couldn't
contradict a lady."

"Oh, what a prevarication, Fabian Rockharrt, when every word, every
deed, every look you bestowed on me went to assure me that you loved me
and wished to marry me!"

"Softly, my dear. Softly. I was sorry for you and generous to you. I
gave you the use of a pretty little house and a sufficient income during
good behavior. But you were ungrateful to me, Rose. You were unkind to
me."

"I was not. I would have married you. I could not have done more than
that."

"But, my dear, your good sense must have told you that I could not marry
you. I have done the best I could by you always. Twice I rescued you
from ruin. Once when you were but little more than a child, and your
boy-lover, or husband, had left you alone, a young stranger in a
strange land--a girl friendless, penniless, beautiful, and so in deadly
peril of perdition, I took you on your own representation, and
introduced you into my own family as the governess of my niece. I became
responsible for you."

"And did I not try my best to please everybody?" sobbed the woman.

"That you did," heartily responded Mr. Fabian. "And everybody loved you.
So that, at the end of five years' service, when my niece was to enter a
finishing school, and you were to go to another situation, you took wit