Page:Richard Marsh--The goddess a demon.djvu/113

Rh left out and your own wickedness put in. You ungrateful scamp, to speak of her in that cold-blooded manner, when she has done all that she possibly could for you, and you, in return, have been to her the one trouble of her life."

He confronted the frank-spoken lady with looks which were alive with impudence. I perceived that he was a better match for a woman than a man.

"I know who you are; you call yourself 'Miss Adair.' 'Adair!' Go on! Sure that's your proper name? I know more about you than you perhaps think. And for Bessie to let out things to you about me shows the sort she is; telling a pack of lies about her only relative."

"Her only relative! It's her misfortune that she has you."

"Oh, that's it, is it? Then from this day forward she hasn't got me; tell her so, with my kind regards. As I've said already, I wash my hands of her; I cut the relationship. Willingly I'll never own to bearing her name again. It's not a name I ever have been particularly proud of, and now it's one of which I shall have less cause to be proud than ever, from what I'm told. Good-day to you, Miss Adair!"

He was now actually marching from the room. I had to give him a gentle hint in order to detain