than
I ever shall be with any one again. You caught me in the violence of the
rebound, for I was confused with grief, and distraction was welcome: you
are always sufficiently amusing. I have not the least idea it would ever
have come off, for, to tell you the truth, my friend, you are too
hopelessly the _enfant gate_ for a woman who is neither young enough nor
old enough to crave youth on any terms. As a husband, I fear, not to put
too fine a point on it, you would be a bore. At the risk of being
thought a snob--to which I am quite indifferent--I will add that as
plain John Gwynne you seem to have so shrunk in size as to have become
as insignificant as most men are, no doubt, when you catch a glimpse of
their unmanufactured side. However"--with the air of a great lady
dismissing an object of patronage--"I wish you good-fortune, and
sincerely hope that we shall one day read of John Gwynne, senator, and
recall for a moment the brilliant Elton Gwynne so long forgotten in this
busy London of ours."

During quite half of her discourse Gwynne had felt his soul writhe under
a rain of hot metal, gibber towards some abyss where it could hide its
humiliation and its scars for ever. His brain seemed vacant and his very
nostrils turned white. But like many clever people goaded to words by a
furious sense of failure, she overshot her mark, and before she
finished his pride had made a terrified rebound and taken complete
possession of him. He still felt stripped, lashed, a presumptuous youth
before a scornful woman in the ripeness of her maturity, but it was
imperative for his future self-respect that he should reassert his
manhood and retire in good order. He let her finish, and then, as she
stood with a still impatience, he lifted his eyes and drew himself up.
His face was devoid of expression. His eyes did not even glitter; he
might have been listening with voluntary politeness to the speech of
majesty laying a corner-stone.

"You are quite right," he said. "You have given me the drubbing I
deserve, and I am grateful to you. It was the only thing I needed to
snap my last tie with England and brace me for the struggle in America.
It emboldens me to ask another favor--that you will regard what I have
told you of my plans as confidential. I shall give out that I am going
to travel for a time. As I believe I mentioned, I do not wish to be
recognized in the United States; and that by the time I have made my new
name my old one will b