She had wept without understanding his meaning, she had wept simply because she guessed that what he spoke of must be base.

Now that she was becoming a woman, she wondered in a last innocent transport whether that kiss, whose burning smart she could still feel, would not perhaps suffice to cover her with the shame to which her cousin had referred.

Thereupon she was seized with remorse, and burst into sobs.
"What is the matter; why are you crying ?" asked Silvere in an anxious voice.
"Oh, leave me," she faltered, "I do not know." Then in spite of herself, as it were, she continued amidst her tears: "Ah! what an unfortunate creature I am! When I was ten years old people used to throw stones at me.

To-day I am treated as the vilest of creatures.

Justin did right to despise me before everybody.