Ha! ha! Force!" She laughed as though speaking in jest, but her real intent was plain to every one that heard her.

Frances, too, laughed so merrily that one might have supposed she considered it all a joke, and her acting was far better than Castlemain's.
"But one must keep up an appearance of virtue and must insist on being kidnapped," said Frances, banteringly.

"It not only enhances one's value, but excuses one's fault.

All these little subterfuges are necessary until one reaches a point where one is both brazen and cheap." Castlemain's life of shame at court had long ceased to be even a matter of gossip, but at this time she was notoriously involved with one Jacob Hall, a common rope dancer.

Therefore my cousin's thrust went home.
"So you admit having been kidnapped ?" asked Castlemain, with little effort to conceal her vindictiveness.
"Sunday, say you ?" asked Frances.
"Yes, Sunday noon, in the public streets, and Sunday night in a country house," returned Castlemain.
"Let me see," said Frances, pausing for a moment to recall what she had been doing at the time of the supposed kidnapping.