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 passion was coming to her rescue. “How dare you speak so to me? How dare you—”

“Dare….” Myrtle shook her head. “Oh, I’ve no patience with you…. I’ll tell you this: Angus Burke is good enough for anybody. I’ve a few ancestors of my own, and he could have had me if he’d wanted me….”

Again Lydia’s mood changed. “Don’t,” she cried piteously, “don’t… I can’t bear it….”

“You ought to suffer,” said the mild, gentle Myrtle, aroused to cruelty. “A girl that will spoil two lives—three, for you are spoiling Malcolm’s, too—just for a ridiculous pride! I’ve admired you—I’ve thought you had character, stronger character than I, and I’ve envied you—but you haven’t…. If you have any heart or any backbone you’ll get up and dress, and you won’t waste any time over it. Then you’ll tell Malcolm Crane—now—that it was all a mistake. You can’t go through with it, anyhow…. Break it off with Mal—and then wait. Everything will come out all right. Everything always does—if you play fair….”

“No…. No…. I must go on. If I broke with Mal I—I couldn’t—answer for myself. I’d go to Angus, I know I would…. Maybe what you say is all so, Myrtle. But that doesn’t alter things a bit. I won’t marry Angus Burke. I won’t, I won’t, I won’t! Think of it. Myrtle,