Am I not right,
madam?"
Beaten, beaten by a direct assault, because she possessed the
weaknesses, as well as the pluck, of a woman. She could control
the language of her lips, but not their quivering; she could meet
his eye with steady assurance but she could not keep the pallor
from her cheeks or subdue the evidences of her heart's turmoil.
Her pitiful glance acknowledged her defeat, which she already saw
mirrored in his eyes.
Taking it for an answer, he said gently enough:
"That we may understand each other at once, I will mention the
person who has been made the subject of these attacks. He--"
"Don't speak the name," she prayed, leaning forward and laying her
gloved hand upon his sleeve. "It is not necessary. The whole thing
is an outrage."
"Of course," he echoed, with some of his natural brusqueness, "and
the rankest folly. But to some follies we have to pay attention,
and I fear that we shall have to pay attention to this one if only
for your daughter Reuther's sake. You cannot wish her to become
the butt of these scandalous attempts?"
"No, no." The words escaped her before she realised that in their
utterance she had given up irretrievably her secret.
"You consider them scandalous?"
"Most scandalous," she emphatically returned, with a vivacity and
seeming candour such as he had seldom seen equalled even on the
witness-stand.
His admiration was quite evident. It did not prevent him, however,
from asking quite abruptly:
"In what shape and by what means did this communication reach
you?"
"I found it lying on the walk between the gates.
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