"By no means."
"Why do you come here? Why do you sneer at my poor clothes? Why—" Her voice trembled, and she stopped abruptly.
"I was not aware that they were poor or old, Miss Duke. I have never seen a more exquisite costume than yours on the evening when we dined here by invitation; it has been like a picture in my memory ever since."
"An old robe that belonged to my grandmother, and I burned it, every shred, as soon as you had gone," said Gardis hotly.
Far from being impressed as she had intended he should be, David Newell merely bowed; the girl saw that he set the act down as "temper."
"I suppose your Northern ladies never do such things?" she said bitterly.
"You are right; they do not," he answered.
"Why do you come here?" pursued Gardis. "Why do you speak to me of Mr. Saxton? Though he had the fortune of a prince, he is nothing to me."
"Roger's fortune is comfortable, but not princely, Miss Duke—by no means princely. We are not princely at the North," added Newell, with a slight smile, "and neither are we 'knightly.' We must, I fear, yield all claim to those prized words of yours."
"I am not aware that I have used the words," said Miss Duke, with lofty indifference.