'You were and are the Countess of Ormont.'
'Not to the world. An unacknowledged wife is a slave, surely.'
'You step down, if you take the step.'
'From what? Once I did desire that station—had an idea it was glorious. I despise it: or rather the woman who had the desire.'
'But the step down is into the working world.'
'I have means to live humbly. I want no more, except to be taught to work.'
'So says the minute. Years are before you. You have weighed well, that you attract?'
She reddened and murmured: 'How small!' Her pout of spite at her attractions was little simulated.
'Beauty and charm are not small matters. You have the gift, called fatal. Then—looking right forward—you have faith in the power of resistance of the woman living alone?'
He had struck at her breast. From her breast she replied.