"The charming creature!" he said to himself, still following her with his eyes.

As the words passed his lips, I struck him smartly on the shoulder with my parasol.
"Mr.Dubourg," I said, "I am waiting to hear the truth." He started violently--and confronted me in speechless dismay; his color coming and going like the color of a young girl.

Anybody who understands women will understand that this behavior on his part, far from softening me towards him, only encouraged me to bully him.
"In your present position in this place, sir," I went on, "do you think it honorable conduct on your part to decoy a young lady, to whom you are a perfect stranger, into your house--a young lady who claims, in right of her sad affliction, even more than the usual forbearance and respect which a gentleman owes to her sex ?" His shifting color settled, for the time, into an angry red.
"You are doing me a great injustice, ma'am," he answered.

"It is a shame to say that I have failed in respect to the young lady! I feel the sincerest admiration and compassion for her.

Circumstances justify me in what I have done; I could not have acted otherwise.