Can a person in my position be expected to expose herself
to--Taint? I make these remarks in a sisterly and Christian
spirit. As a lady yourself--I will even go the length of saying a
cruelly used lady--you will, I am sure, understand--"

I could endure it no longer. I stopped her there.

"I understand," I said, "that you wish to give us notice to quit
your lodgings. When do you want us to go?"

The landlady held up a long, lean, red hand, in a sorrowful and
sisterly protest.

"No," she said. "Not that tone; not those looks. It's natural you
should be annoyed; it's natural you should be angry. But do--now
do please try and control yourself. I put it to your own
common-sense (we will say a week for the notice to quit)--why not
treat me like a friend? You don't know what a sacrifice, what a
cruel sacrifice, I have made--entirely for your sake.

"You?" I exclaimed. "What sacrifice?"

"What sacrifice?" repeated the landlady. "I have degraded myself
as a gentlewoman. I have forfeited my own self-respect." She
paused for a moment, and suddenly seized my hand in a perfect
frenzy of friendship. "Oh, my poor dear!" cried this intolerable
person. "I have discovered everything. A villain has deceived
you. You are no more married than I am!"

I snatched my hand out of hers, and rose angrily from my chair.