"
"Admire it also at a distance, I beg, hereafter," I said, bowing coldly,
smiling very bitterly, I fear, with lips white with anger and disgust.
"Those scars, Miriam!" he went on, as if unobservant of my manner, yet
with the old sarcastic gleam in his eyes, in the most audacious way,
"have nearly disappeared, have they not? I think I understood so from
Dr. Pemberton. Let me see that on your arm, my dear," and he extended
his hand to grasp it.
"They are indelible, Mr. Bainrothe," I replied, folding my arms tightly
above my heart, "as are some other impressions; never allude to them
again, I request you. It offends me." And I left him, coldly and
abruptly.
I give this little scene only as a specimen of his occasional behavior
at this period, and of the humiliation to which his presence so often
subjected me. But matters had not yet culminated.
CHAPTER VII.
Evelyn's fortune and Mabel's were, like much of my own, invested in the
Bank of Pennsylvania, and deemed secure in that gigantic bubble. At
twenty-three Evelyn, of course, consulted no one as to the disposition
of her income, which she spent freely and magnificently on herself
alone. Her jewels, silks, laces, were of the finest quality and fabric;
she drove a peerless little equipage, had her own ponies and tiger and
maid; travelled frequently, entertained splendidly, though this last, it
must be confessed, was not at her expense, if redounding to her credit.
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