“Did I call you a demon at Ravenna?”
“Yes, you did.”
“Then, Mary, I am heartily ashamed of myself and beg your pardon now. There can be no justification, but at the same time—”
“You wish to justify yourself.”
“No, no, certainly not; but I was scarcely myself at that moment, and you certainly did your best to vex me about Fan and other matters.”
“What do you mean by other matters?”
“You know that I am alluding to Mr. Yewdell, and the way you treated him. I could not have believed it of you. I began to think that I had the most—well, capricious woman in all Europe for a sister.”
“Poor man!”
“No, it is not poor man in this case, but poor woman. For you contemptuously flung away the best chance of happiness that ever came to you. I dare say that you have had offers in plenty—you have some money, and therefore of course you would get offers—but not from Yewdells. That could not happen to you more than once in your life. A better-hearted fellow, a truer man—”
“Call him a Nature's nobleman at once and have done with it.”