The door opened and Archibald Rushford entered. He closed the door carefully behind him and advanced to the middle of the room.
Vernon started forward.
"Why, how are you, Mr. Rushford?" he began, with outstretched hand. "I'm very glad to see you."
"Oh, you are?" inquired the American, keeping his own hands firmly behind his back. "I suppose you're glad to see me, too?" he added, turning to the Prince.
"I know of no reason why I should avoid you," returned the Prince, proudly.
"Perhaps not," assented Rushford, drily. "The standards of gentlemanly conduct seem to be different in the Old World and in the New. I'm glad, however, that I've caught you two together. I suppose that little farce of pretended illness was played only for the benefit of outsiders!"
"I assure you, Mr. Rushford," began Vernon quickly, but the American stopped him with a gesture.
"I don't care to hear," he said. "I care nothing for your two-by-four conspiracies and intrigues. But, I repeat, I'm glad I caught both of you together. It enables me to tell, in the same breath, what I think of both of you, and I am very anxious to tell you, fully and completely, for I suppose you have been surrounded all your lives by toadies who were afraid to tell you the truth about yourselves, or who were so like you that they couldn't see the truth—products of the same code of morals—a code truly European! In a word, then, I think you are both blackguards—blackguards of the most nasty and contemptible kind—the kind that preys upon women! I may add that you have deeply shaken my faith in human nature, for, to look at you, one would mistake you for gentlemen!"
The words were uttered quietly, evenly, deliberately; each one given its full value. There was a certain dignity in Rushford's aspect which made interruption impossible; but neither man offered to interrupt. The Prince was biting his lips desperately; Vernon turned red and white and red again in evident amazement.
"And having said this," concluded the American, "as emphatically as possible, I will very gladly leave you to yourselves."