"Let me tell you, Mr. Keith has never said a word against you to me--and that is much more than I can say for you; so you need not be maligning him now."
A faint flush stole into Wickersham's face.
"You appear to be championing his cause very warmly."
"Because he is a friend of mine and an honorable gentleman."
He gave a hard, bitter laugh.
"Women are innocent!"
"It is more than men are" she said, fired, as women always are, by a fleer at the sex.
"Who has been slandering me?" he demanded, angered suddenly by her retort. "I have stood in a relation to you which gives me a right to demand the name."
"What relation to me?--Where is your wife?"
His face whitened, and he drew in his breath as if struck a blow,--a long breath,--but in a second he had recovered himself, and he burst into a laugh.