“Madge!”
“Who is to be the next favourite, when you are weary of your last conquest—one of the kitchen wenches?”
“Perhaps,” he said coolly.
“Rob! Have you no heart that you treat me as you do?”
“I never thought, never said a word to make you think I meant—er—marriage.”
“Think you meant marriage?” she whispered. “I did love you as dearly as I hate you now for your heartless cruelty to me. But you shall repent it—repent it bitterly.”
“Look here,” he said roughly; “for years past we have lived in this house like brother and sister, and I won’t have you speak like this. Does my mother know?”
“Ask her.”
“Bah!”
“You dare not ask her what she thinks or whether she approves of your choice. Captain Rolph in love with the gamekeeper’s daughter! Is she to be taken to the county ball, and introduced to society? And is she to wear the family diamonds? Judith—Judy—the miserable, low-bred—”