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 it 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 after all that she had done! She would not bear it.