"The Queen can do no wrong. But even the Queen, perhaps more particularly the Queen, must give thought to what people are saying."
"What are people saying?"
"The usual unjust things that are said about women in society. You are being constantly seen with an uncouth freak who is scarcely a gentleman, however much he may be a man. And malicious tongues are wagging."
The girl stiffened.
"I won't spar with you. I know that you are alluding to Samson South, though the description is a slander. I never thought it would be necessary to say such a thing to you, Wilfred, but you are talking like a cad."
The young man flushed.
"I laid myself open to that," he said, slowly, "and I suppose I should have expected it."
He knew her well enough to dread the calmness of her more serious anger, and just now the tilt of her chin, the ominous light of her deep eyes and the quality of her voice told him that he had incurred it.
"May I ask," Adrienne inquired, "what you fancy constitutes your right to assume this censorship of my conduct?"
"I have no censorship, of course. I have only the interest of loving you, and meaning to marry you."