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Rh a very different matter from allowing you to degrade your womanhood by a marriage such as this."

She stood up, looking him between the eyes. "But my womanhood, since you put it in that way, is something with which you have no concern." Then she went on quickly and caustically. "Let us have that plain between us. With my marriage you have absolutely nothing to do. You insisted upon a direct answer to your question and I have given it. Now, Mr. Hereford, if you feel inclined to return to your office it will leave me at liberty to finish the letter I was writing."

He stared as she turned away from him, for he was not used to such treatment from women. He had noted while she was speaking the willful and triumphant lifting of her