icate nostril expand slightly, as she fixed her brilliant
eyes on his, and smiled. Then she continued:

"Is it not too sacred and aristocratic a mantle to fling around an
obscure actress, of whose pedigree and antecedent life you know
nothing, save that widowhood and penury goaded her to histrionic
exhibitions of a beauty, that sometimes threatened to subject her to
impertinence and insult? Put aside the infatuation which not
unfrequently attacks men, who like you are rapidly descending the
hill of life, approaching the stage of second childlike simplicity,
and listen for a moment to the cold dictates of prudence and policy.
Suppose that ere you surrendered your reason to the magnetism of what
you are pleased to consider my 'physical perfection,' one of your
relatives, a brother, or say even your son, had met me at Milan as
you did; and madly forgetting his family rank, his aristocratic ties,
all the pride and worldly wisdom of heredity, had, while in a fit of
complete dementia, offered as you have done to clothe my humble
obscurity in the splendid name of Laurance? Would General Rene
Laurance have pardoned him, and received me as his sister, or his
daughter?"

"Could I censure any man for surrendering to charms which have so
completely vanquished me? Thank heaven! I have neither brother nor
son to rival me. My only child Cuthbert is safely anchored in the
harbour of wedlock, and having his own family ties, I am free to
consult only my heart in the choice of a bride. I have not journeyed
so far down the hill of life as you cruelly persist in asserting, and
the fervour of my emotions denies your unkind imputation. When I
proudly show the world the lovely wife of my heart's choice, you will
find my devotion a noble refutation of your unflattering estimate.
But a moment since, you confessed that to exchange the name of Orme
for that of Laurance would crown your ambition; my dearest, the truth
has escaped you."

With a sudden gesture of loathing she threw off his hand, struck her
palms together, and he started at the expression that seemed
literally to blaze in her eyes, so vivid, so withering was the light
that rayed out.

"Yes, the truth escaped my lips. The honourable name of Laurance is
talismanic, and offers much to Odille Orme; yet I will stain my soul
with no dissimulation. With love and romance, I finished long, long
ago; and to-day I have not patience to trifle even with its
phraseology. I am thirty-three, an