'A scene!' exclaimed Lady Monteagle, bursting into a flood of
indignant tears. 'Is this the way the expression of my feelings is
ever to be stigmatised? Barbarous man!'
Cadurcis stood with his back to the fireplace, with his lips
compressed, and his hands under his coat-tails. He was resolved that
nothing should induce him to utter a word. He looked the picture of
dogged indifference.
'I know where you have been,' continued Lady Monteagle. 'You have been
to Richmond; you have been with Miss Herbert. Yes! I know all. I am a
victim, but I will not be a dupe. Yorkshire indeed! Paltry coward!'
Cadurcis hummed an air.
'And this is Lord Cadurcis!' continued the lady. 'The sublime,
ethereal Lord Cadurcis, condescending to the last refuge of the
meanest, most commonplace mind, a vulgar, wretched lie! What could
have been expected from such a mind? You may delude the world, but I
know you. Yes, sir! I know you. And I will let everybody know you. I
will tear away the veil of charlatanism with which you have enveloped
yourself. The world shall at length discover the nature of the idol
they have worshipped. All your meanness, all your falsehood, all your
selfishness, all your baseness, shall be revealed. I may be spurned,
but at any rate I will be revenged!'
Lord Cadurcis yawned.
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