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 and she answered him fiercely. "As I do? You say that bitterly, because your vanity is in ruins, not because you had any right to make some silly 'ideal' of me. You say that of him so bitterly because you began by thinking him a nothing, and ever since then you have seen yourself growing smaller and smaller while he grew larger and larger until now you know he is a colossus. You accuse me of following what any woman would be proud to follow and what no woman could make follow her! You say we respect him and get on our knees to him for his money. What have you to offer? Anything? As an American you are absurd. Don't you know what we really think of you? What else have you to offer us that we can go down on our knees before? What do we respect any of you for except for your money?"

She overwhelmed the wretched young man who had so strangely misunderstood her until now; she daunted and dismayed him. He stepped back from her, staring incredulously. "What?" he gasped. "You say it! You say"

"Yes!" she cried. "Once! I say it once, but not again." She followed him as he stepped backward from her. "I want you to go now; the porters will be here for my luggage, and you will be in the