"Neither will I permit you to make yourself the talk of London through him!"
"I? I? I make myself the talk of London? How dare you? Oh! how dare you?"
"I beg you will cease that foolishness. There is no question of my daring. How dare you disobey me, as you have been doing all this past week?"
She cowered away from him.
"Dicky!"
"'Tis very well to cry 'Dicky,' and to smile, but I have experienced that before. Sometimes I think you are utterly without heart!—a selfish, vain, extravagant woman!"
The childish lips trembled. Lady Lavinia buried her face in the pillows, sobbing.
Carstares' face softened.
"I beg your pardon, my dear. Mayhap that was unjust."
"And cruel! And cruel!"