She told herself she despised him; and there came no echoing protest or denial from anywhere within her.

She said she was done with him forever, and well done; her own answer to herself there was, that while she was probably the better off for having got out of the engagement, still it must be conceded that socially the manner of her getting out meant scandal, gossip, laughter at her.

Her cheeks burned as her soul flamed.
"The vulgar boor!" she muttered.
Was ever woman so disgraced, and so unjustly?
What had the gods against her, that they had thus abased her?
How Washington would jeer! How her friends would sneer! What hope was there now of her ever getting a husband?
She would be an object of pity and of scorn.

It would take more courage than any of the men of her set had, to marry a woman rejected by such a creature--and in such circumstances! "He has made everybody think I sought him.

Now, he'll tell everybody that he had to break it off--that HE broke it off!" She ground her teeth; she clenched her hands; she wept and moaned in the loneliness of her bed.