"I do not even dislike you," she continued in a more friendly tone, adding, as if by way of explaining this phenomenon, "You are my brother's friend.

But I am disappointed in you, Sir Rowland.

You had, I know, no intention of offering me disrespect; and yet it is what you have done." "As how ?" he asked.
"Knowing me another's wife..." He broke in tempestuously.

"A mock marriage! If it is but that scruple stands between us..." "I think there is more," she answered him.

"You compel me to hurt you; I do so as the surgeon does--that I may heal you." "Why, thanks for nothing," he made answer, unable to repress a sneer.
Then, checking himself, and resuming the hero-martyr posture, "I go, mistress," he told her sadly, "and if I lose my life to-night, or to-morrow, in this affair..." "I shall pray for you," said she; for she had found him out at last, perceived the nature of the bow he sought to draw across her heart-strings, and, having perceived it, contempt awoke in her.