That he was unjust to her,--cruelly unjust, she was quite sure. He
accused her of intentional privity as to a secret which it
behooved him to know, and of being a party to that secrecy.
Whereas from the moment in which she had heard the secret she had
determined that it must be made known to him. She felt that she
had deserved his good opinion in all things, but in nothing more
than in the way in which she had acted in this matter. And yet he
had treated her with an imperious harshness which amounted to
insolence. What a letter it was that he had written to her! The
very tips of her ears tingled with heat as she read again to
herself. None of the ordinary courtesies of epistle-craft had been
preserved either in the beginning or in the end. It was worse even
than if he had called her, Madam without an epithet. 'The Duke
understands--' 'The Duke thinks--' 'The Duke feels--' feels that he
should not be troubled with either letters or conversation; the
upshot of it all being that the Duke declared her to have shown
herself unworthy of being treated like a lady! And this is after
all she had done!
She would not bear it.
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