to laugh, yet something in his tone seared her outraged pride. He might
as well have touched an iron to quivering flesh. "You ought to remember,
however, - I mean every woman ought to remember, - that when a girl lets
a man know that she cares for him she generally forfeits, then and
there, whatever interest she may have had for him. Wildenai risked too
much. Of course, in her case there was some excuse. She was only an
untrained barbarian. But, under ordinary circumstances, I tell you
there's nothing a man despises so much!"

What was done or said after that Miss Hastings never could have told.
She was possessed of but one desire, - to get away, to go back to the
hotel, - home, anywhere beyond the reach of his voice and his eyes. For
the moment she hated him, and although Blair, conscience smitten at he
knew not what, waited in the lobby a full hour before going in to
dinner, she did not come down.

Up in her room, mechanically brushing her hair for the night, Miss
Hastings stormily addressed the girl in the glass who stared so
scornfully back at her.

"I tell you I don't care a thing about it! He probably thought he was
justified in every word he said. He's probably smiling this very minute
because he thinks he managed it so well! But he's a coward just the
same, and I despise him, - I do despise him!" Her eyes brimming with
tears, she fiercely repeated the word. "Well, he'll soon find out how
much I really meant!"

Over and over she re-lived the short scene, - all of its humiliation,
all of its hurt, seeking at every turn solace for her woman's pride.