"Another engagement is easily broken."
"It is a dinner engagement."
"I don't believe you."
"You are grossly rude."
"I know I am. It's perfectly awful. It's the first time I ever insulted a woman. I shall be in the depths of repentance all day to-morrow. I don't know if I shall ever really pardon myself. But ... I don't believe you, all the same."
He said this with a mournful deliberation that would at any other time have roused her most enjoying laughter; for he had in him the rich fund of true comedy, as many of his friends were wont loudly to attest, and at will he could draw flattering plaudits of mirth from even the gloomiest hearer.
But Mrs. Lee did not show the glimpse of a smile.
"There is no use," she said. "I have given you my answer. I shall not go. I shall not permit you to make of my name and position a mere idle convenience. I shall not lend you either one or the other, that it may serve your purpose in presenting to society any adventuress who may have pleased your fancy."
Goldwin was very angry at this speech. She had no idea how angry it had made him, as he quietly rose and faced her.
"What right have you to call her an adventuress?" he asked.