"Well, my dear girl," said the visitor, impertinently, "you took my husband, so why should I not take your lover?"
Claudia rose indignantly, and her mien was that of a queen in a truly royal rage. "I won't allow you to talk to me in that way," she declared, heatedly. "So far as I am concerned, I did not wish to marry your husband, and I never knew that he had a wife already. My father forced me to consent, but now that Sir Hector is dead I am going to have my own way and marry Edwin. You have caused quite enough mischief, Lady Wyke."
"Mischief, when I saved you from a marriage you disliked?"
"You did not save me. Sir Hector was murdered, and that saved me."
"One moment," said Lady Wyke, in cool tones, "you forgot that it was my interposition which sent Sir Hector down to Hedgerton to consider matters. Had he not gone there he might not have been murdered, so I have saved you, in spite of all you say."
"Did you send him to Hedgerton to got him murdered?" asked Claudia, scornfully.
Lady Wyke lost her breath at this insinuation, and rose indignantly. When she got it again it was to protest. "You go too for. Miss Lemby."
"Not so far as you go, madam. How dare you come here and tell me that you love the man I am going to marry?"
"And how dare you accuse me of murdering my husband?"
The two women faced one another and looked into one another's eyes, each trying to bear the other down. The widow felt her inferiority under the girl's indignant gaze, but managed to retreat gracefully.