"Your knowledge of the world is greater than mine, and will tell you better than I can," she replied, calmly. "Three months since they would have been a suitable present to one in the position I held then; now they are quite out of place, and I decline them."
"You decline them!" exclaimed Lady Darrell, hardly believing that it was in human nature to refuse such jewels.
Pauline smiled calmly, repeated the words, and walked away.
Sir Oswald, with an angry murmur, replaced the jewels in the case and set it aside.
"She has the Darrell spirit," he said to his wife, with an awkward smile; and she devoutly hoped that her husband would not often exhibit the same.
CHAPTER XXV.
A TRUE DARRELL.
The way in which the girl supported her disappointment was lofty in the extreme. She bore her defeat as proudly as some would have borne a victory. No one could have told from her face or her manner that she had suffered a grievous defeat. When she alluded to the change in her position, it was with a certain proud humility that had in it nothing approaching meanness or envy.