"
"By Heaven, you make me feel--mad!" he said, with suppressed anger.
"You tell me unblushingly, to my face, that you have fallen in love
with the son of my old enemy, that you want to marry him--you ask me to
help you, to--to forego my just revenge, to use my hold over him as a
lever, to induce him, force him--Good God! have you no sense of right
or wrong, are you utterly devoid of--of modesty, of womanly pride!"
He glowered down upon her with flushed face and angry eyes; but she was
quite unmoved by his outburst, and still met his gaze steadily, almost
reflectingly.
"A fortnight ago I should have asked myself that question--and as
angrily as you; but I can't now. It has gone too far."
"Gone too far! You mean--"
"That I have grown to love him so much, so dearly, that life without
him--"
"By God! you will have to live without him, for I'll not help you to
get him," he said, fiercely. "Stafford Orme, Stephen Orme's boy! No!
Put the thing out of your mind, Maude! See here--I don't want to be
angry; I'll take back all I said: you--well, you surprised me, and
shocked me, too, I'll admit--you're a strange girl, and say things that
you don't mean, and in a cold-blooded way that gives me fits.
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