“Then it’s my cousin.”
“Your cousin?”
“Yes. I warn you, she’s a very violent woman.”
“I know that.”
“She’s capable of attacking you anywhere.”
“I know that, too.”
“Have you considered your resolution calmly? As you will readily understand,—a man to whom a woman writes making an appointment, and to whom she says: ‘If I did not respond to your attentions it was because they deceived me about you, and told me that you were many things that you were not,’—such a man cannot resign himself to listening tranquilly to such a confession.”
“What is he going to do about it?”
“He will look for satisfaction. No one consents to being the mere, passive instrument of another’s vengeance. You will ruin this man’s peace of mind.”
“Didn’t they ruin mine?”