And he cursed as he read:
"The damned scoundrels! And it's not true; it didn't happen like that...."
"But what is it they say?" Constance demanded, furiously.
Paul took her by the arm and led her into the little boudoir, where their father's portrait hung:
"Be quiet, Constance. Please, please don't read it! What good will it do you; all that dirty language, all that vulgarity? It's filthy, it's filthy!"
"And is there nothing we can do?"
"No, no, for God's sake, no!" Paul begged, as though preferring to hush up, everything. "Every one will have forgotten it in ten days' time."
"Is there nothing we can do?"
"What do you want to do?" Paul asked, changing his tone, harshly. "Surely you wouldn't sue the cad for libel?"
"No, no!" she said, startled and terrified.