I said I would
smash him, and I have smashed him. Do you see this check? That was
waiting for me at my rooms this morning. Eleven hundred pounds--that was
two days' work only, and I had plenty more before. But do you think it
is his check? Not a bit! It is drawn out by a friend of his. It is lent
him. He is just so much the more in debt, and I don't believe he has a
farthing in the world. And that's the wonderful creature all you women
are worshipping!"
Now this foolish boy ought to have taken care, but he had been carried
away on a whirlwind of jealous rage. All the time that he was pouring
forth his vengeful story, Miss Burgoyne's face had become more and more
hard; and when he ceased, she answered him, in low and measured tones
that conveyed the most bitter scorn.
"Yes," she said, "we women are worthy of being despised, when--when we
think anything of such creatures as men are capable of showing
themselves to be! Oh, it is a fine time to come and boast of what you
have done, when the man you hate--when the man you _fear_--is lying ill,
delirious, perhaps dying. That is the time to boast of your strength,
your prowess! And how dare you come to me," she continued, with a sudden
toss of her head, "with all this story of gambling and debt? What is it
to me? It seems that is the way men fight now--with a pack of cards!
That is fighting between--men, and the victor waves a check in triumph,
and comes and brags about it to women! Well--I--I don't
appreciate--such--such manliness.
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