I only want you to go away." "You seem to think that I'm something,--something altogether beneath you." And so in truth she did.

Miss Palliser had never analysed her own feelings and emotions about the Spooners whom she met in society; but she probably conceived that there were people in the world who, from certain accidents, were accustomed to sit at dinner with her, but who were no more fitted for her intimacy than were the servants who waited upon her.

Such people were to her little more than the tables and chairs with which she was brought in contact.

They were persons with whom it seemed to her to be impossible that she should have anything in common,--who were her inferiors, as completely as were the menials around her.

Why she should thus despise Mr.Spooner, while in her heart of hearts she loved Gerard Maule, it would be difficult to explain.