"Why extraordinary?" That her cup of humiliation might brim to the full,
resentment was added to confusion. "You consider me unworthy, then, of
having had nobility among my ancestry? But, just the same, there was
nothing strange about it. The colonies were chiefly English, you
remember!" He smiled at her sarcasm. "The duke married one of
Elizabeth's ladies-in-waiting after he went home and there was a younger
son, and he had a younger son, and after a long time one of them came
over to Virginia just like anybody else. They have always been good,
loyal, highly respected American citizens," she told him fiercely, "and
I'm proud of them! Besides - " with reckless emphasis, "I've always felt
so sorry for Wildenai."

But at this point, quite incomprehensibly, Blair broke into peals of
laughter.

"And by and by, after a long, long time, one of these good, loyal,
American citizens that we're both so proud of had a hot-tempered, most
disloyal little daughter who intends to show her employer his proper
place before she dismisses him! But why are you sorry for Wildenai?"

With mischievous eyes he searched her face.

She flushed, then, looking squarely at him, "Because she was impulsive
like me, and just for that reason Lord Harold ran away and left her,"
she said. "He's the only one of them I never had any use for."

Blair wandered the length of the cavern and back before he replied.

"You think him a coward, I suppose." He still looked as though he wanted