"I didn't know you.

I hadn't even been introduced to you." It was on the tip of his tongue to add, "and I haven't been yet--" but he checked himself in fear of unchaining the lightning.

It was all perfectly true.

He had not even been introduced to the girl, and here she was, as crude as life and as intemperate, accusing him of indifference and falsehood.

And after all, what had they done to her?
No one had been openly rude.