Henry Howard did not hold her back.

He looked after her with a smile as she left the cabinet, and murmured, almost compassionately: "Poor woman! I have, perhaps, cheated her out of a lover, and she will never forgive me that.

Well, let it be so! Let her, as much as she pleases, be my enemy, and torment me with petty pin-prickings, if she be but unable to harm her.

I hope, though, that I have guarded well my secret, and she could not suspect the real cause of my refusal.

Ah, I was obliged to wrap myself in that foolish family pride, and make haughtiness a cloak for my love.