"You excellent Lecount! I assure you,
ma'am, Mrs. Lecount is a worthy creature. You will observe that she
pities the two girls. I don't go so far as that myself, but I can make
allowances for them. I am a large-minded man. I can make allowances
for them and for you." He smiled with the most cordial politeness, and
helped himself to a strawberry from the dish on his lap.
"You shock Miss Garth; indeed, sir, without meaning it, you shock Miss
Garth," remonstrated Mrs. Lecount. "She is not accustomed to you as I
am. Consider Miss Garth, sir. As a favor to _me_, consider Miss Garth."
Thus far Magdalen had resolutely kept silence. The burning anger, which
would have betrayed her in an instant if she had let it flash its way
to the surface, throbbed fast and fiercely at her heart, and warned
her, while Noel Vanstone was speaking, to close her lips. She would have
allowed him to talk on uninterruptedly for some minutes more if Mrs.
Lecount had not interfered for the second time. The refined insolence
of the housekeeper's pity was a woman's insolence; and it stung her into
instantly controlling herself. She had never more admirably imitated
Miss Garth's voice and manner than when she spoke her next words.
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