id, with a
silvery laugh, "that you should be condemned to imprisonment with one
who is unfortunately such a _bete noire_ to you as I am! I assure you, I
feel for you; if I were not coward enough to be a little afraid of that
lightning, I would really go away to relieve you from your sufferings. I
should feel quite honored by the distinction of your hatred if I didn't
know, you, on principle, dislike every woman living. Is your judgment
always infallible?"

Beyond a little surprise in his eyes, Telfer's features were as
impassive as ever. "Far from it," he answered, quietly "I merely judge
people by their actions."

The Tressillian's luminous eyes flashed proudly. "An unsafe guide, Major
Telfer; you cannot judge of actions until you know their motives. I know
perfectly well why you dislike and avoid me: you listened to a foolish
report, and you heard me giving your father permission to write to me.
Those are your grounds, are they not?"

Telfer, for once in his life, _was_ astonished, but he looked at her
fixedly. "And were they not just ones?"

"No," said Violet, vehemently,--"no, they were most rankly unjust; and
it is hard, indeed, if a girl, who has no friends or advisers that she
can trust, may not accept the kindness and ask the counsels of a man
fifty-five years older than herself without his being given to her as a
lover, and the world's whispering that she is trying to entrap him. You
pique yourself on your clear-sightedness, Major Telfer, but for once
your judgment failed you when you attributed such mean and mercenary
motives to me, and supposed, because, as you so generously stated, I had
'no money and no home,' I must necessarily have no heart or conscience,
but be ready to give myself at any moment to the highest bidder, and
take advantage of the kindness of your noble-minded, generous-hearted
father to trick him into marriage." She stopped, fairly out of breath
with excitement. Telfer was going to speak, but she silenced him with a
haughty gesture. "No; now we are started on the subject, hear me to the
end. You have done me gross injustice--an offence the Tressillians never
forgive--but, for my own sake, I wish to show you how mistaken you were
in your hasty condemnation. At the beginning of the season I was
introduced to your father. He knew my mother well in her girlhood, and
he said I reminded him of her. He was very kind to me, and I, who have
no real friend on earth, of course was grateful to him