This was his gratitude! "Wait, wait," said Cecil rapidly, laying his hand on her shoulder, as she flung herself away.

"My dear child, do not think me ungrateful.

I know well enough I should be a dead man myself had it not been for your gallant assistance.

Believe me, I thank you from my heart." "But you think me 'unsexed' all the same! I see, beau lion!" The word had rankled in her; she could launch it now with telling reprisal.
He smiled; but he saw that this phrase, which she had overheard, had not alone incensed, but had wounded her.
"Well, a little, perhaps," he said gently.

"How should it be otherwise?
And, for that matter, I have seen many a great lady look on and laugh her soft, cruel laughter, while the pheasants were falling by hundreds, or the stags being torn by the hounds.