But he never even thought that she really liked Earle. Had she not run away from him?
CHAPTER LXXI.
THE COWARD'S THREAT.
"That is the first part of your declaration," said Lady Doris, with the calm of infinite contempt; "if I will promise to be your wife, you will promise to marry me. What if I refuse?"
"You are placing a very painful alternative before me," he replied.
"Never mind the pain, my lord; we will waive that. I wish to know the alternative."
"If you will marry me I will keep your secret, Lady Doris Studleigh, faithfully, until death."
"Then I clearly, distinctly, and firmly refuse to marry you. What then?"
"In that case I shall be compelled to take the most disagreeable measures—I shall be compelled to hold your secret as a threat over you, if you refuse to be my wife. I tell you, quite honestly, that I will make you the laughing-stock of all London. You—fair, beautiful, imperial—you shall be an object of scorn; men shall laugh at you, women turn aside as you pass by. Even the most careless and reckless shall refuse to receive you—shall consider you out of the pale. I will tell the whole world, if you compel me to do it, what you were to me in Florence; I will tell the handsome earl, your father, whose roof in that case will no longer shelter you. I will tell your proud, high-bred step-mother—the haughty duchess who presented you at court—nay, even the queen herself, she who values a woman's good name far above all worldly rank."
"You would do all that?" she said.