"If that's all, I might have found several. But come, Kate, it's no use,
and not very dignified, to squabble. We haven't got on so well as we
might. But I dare say it's my fault."

"Do you want to throw me over?" asked Kate scornfully.

"For Heaven's sake, don't talk like a breach-of-promise plaintiff! I am
and always have been perfectly ready to fulfill my engagement. But you
don't make it easy for me. Unless you 'throw me over,' as you are
pleased to phrase it, things will remain as they are."

"I have been taught to consider an engagement as binding as a marriage."

"No warrant for such a view in Holy Scripture."

"And whatever my feelings may be--and you can hardly wonder if, after
your conduct, they are not what they were--I shall consider myself
bound."

"I have never proposed anything else."

"Your conduct with Claudia--"

"I must ask you to leave Lady Claudia alone. If you come to that--but
there, I was just going to scratch back like a school-girl. Let us
remember our manners, if nothing else."

"And our principles," added Kate haughtily.

"By all means, and forget our deviations from them. And now this