her mind. "I have no
more to say," she added, wearily, not addressing the words to anyone
in particular, and looking away from us all, out of the window that was
nearest to her.

Mr. Ablewhite got upon his feet, and pushed away his chair so violently
that it toppled over and fell on the floor.

"I have something more to say on my side," he announced, bringing down
the flat of his hand on the table with a bang. "I have to say that if my
son doesn't feel this insult, I do!"

Rachel started, and looked at him in sudden surprise.

"Insult?" she repeated. "What do you mean?"

"Insult!" reiterated Mr. Ablewhite. "I know your motive, Miss Verinder,
for breaking your promise to my son! I know it as certainly as if you
had confessed it in so many words. Your cursed family pride is insulting
Godfrey, as it insulted ME when I married your aunt. Her family--her
beggarly family--turned their backs on her for marrying an honest man,
who had made his own place and won his own fortune. I had no ancestors.
I wasn't descended from a set of cut-throat scoundrels who lived by
robbery and murder. I couldn't point to the time when the Ablewhites
hadn't a shirt to their backs, and couldn't sign their own names. Ha!
ha! I wasn't good enough for the Herncastles, when I married. And now,
it comes to the pinch, my son isn't good enough for YOU. I suspected it,
all along. You have got the Herncastle blood in you, my young lady! I
suspected it all along."

"A very unworthy suspicion," remarked Mr. Bruff. "I am astonished that
you have the courage to acknowledge it."

Before Mr. Ablewhite could find words to answer in, Rachel spoke in a
tone of the most exasperating contempt.

"Surely," she said to the lawyer, "this is beneath notice. If he can
think in THAT way, let us leave him to think as he pleases."

From scarlet, Mr. Ablewhite was now becoming purple. He gasped for
breath; he looked backwards and forwards from Rachel to Mr. Bruff in
such a frenzy of rage with both of them that he didn't know which to
attack first. His wife, who had sat impenetrably fanning herself up to
this time, began to be alarmed, and attempted, quite uselessly, to quiet
him. I had, throughout this distressing interview, felt more than one
inward call to interfere with a few earnest words, and had controlled
myself under a dread of the possible results, very unworthy of a
Christian Englishwoman who looks, not to what is meanly prudent, but to
what is morally rig