more, will it be very dignified behaviour to go about proclaiming that
you have quarrelled with me, and that you are bent on giving me a bad
character? Isn't it likely to cause a smile?"

As she listened, Constance shook with passion.

"Are you so utterly base," she cried, "as to stand there and deny the
truth of what I say?"

"I never argue with anyone in a rage. Why such a thing as this--a
purely intellectual matter--a question for quiet reasoning--should
infuriate you, I am at a loss to understand. We had better talk no more
for the present. I must hope for another opportunity."

He moved as though to withdraw, but by no means with the intention of
doing so, for he durst not have left Constance in this mood of violent
hostility. Her outbreak had astonished him; he knew not of what she
might be capable. There flashed through his mind the easy assurance he
had given to May--that Constance Bride should be persuaded to friendly
offices on their behalf, and he had much ado to disguise his
consternation. For a moment he thought of flattering her pride by
unconditional surrender, by submissive appeal, but to that he could not
bring himself. Her discovery, her contempt and menaces, had deeply
offended him; the indeterminate and shifting sentiments with which he
had regarded her crystallised into dislike--that hard dislike which
commonly results, whether in man or woman, from trifling with sacred
relations. That Constance had been--perhaps still was tenderly disposed
to him, served merely to heighten his repugnance. To stand in fear of
this woman was a more humiliating and exasperating sensation than he
had ever known.

"Do as you think fit," he added in a stern voice, pausing at a little
distance. "It is indifferent to me. In any case, Lady Ogram will soon
know how things stand, and the result must be what it will. I have
chosen my course."

Constance was regarding him steadily. Her wrath had Leased to flare,
but it glowed through her countenance.

"You mean," she said, "that just at the critical moment of your career
you are bent on doing the rashest thing you possibly could? And you ask
me to believe that you are acting in this way before you even know
whether you have a chance of gaining anything by it?"

"It had occurred to me," Lashmar replied, "that, when you understood
the state of things, you might be willing to exert yourself to help me.
But that was before I learnt that you regarded me with contempt, if n