"I refer to the prejudice which you confessed to entertaining against
me."

"But did I not acknowledge that it was unjust? And when one confesses
wrong and is willing to correct it, credit should not be withheld," Mrs.
Montague retorted, with some warmth. "But seriously, Ruth," she
continued, with considerable eagerness, "Louis is very much in earnest
about this matter. He has dutifully asked my permission to address you,
and I believe it would be for his happiness and interest to have a good
wife, such as I am confident you would make. I know that he has betrayed
something of this feeling to you, or I should not presume to speak to you
about it; but my reason for so doing is that I thought perhaps you might
feel more free to accept his suit if you knew that I approved of the
union."

Mona was trembling now with mingled excitement and indignation.
Excitement over the discovery that Louis Hamblin had really been in
earnest when he had made love to her at Hazeldean, and indignation that
he should still presume to think that she would marry him after the
decided rebuff she had given him at that time. She was also astonished
that Mrs. Montague should propose such a thing after what she had said,
on the night of the ball, about her "angling for Ray Palmer, and
imagining herself to be his equal in any respect."

Then she grew very pale with a sudden suspicion. Perhaps Mrs. Montague
had discovered who she was, possibly Mr. Corbin had been to her to
question her, and had aroused her suspicions that she was Mona Montague,
and she was plotting to marry her to her nephew in order to keep her
fortune in the family, and thus tie Mona's hands to render her incapable