"That doesn't look like filibustering, does it?"
"'His Excellency!'" he retorted. "Why won't you look this matter
straight in the face? Napoleon or no Napoleon, the end of this thing
is ruin."
"Take care that you don't get lost in the debris," she said bitingly.
"I can take care of myself. I am sorry to have you mixed up in it."
"You are sorry? How good of you! How paternal!"
"If your husband were here--"
"If my husband were here, you would probably be his best friend," she
rejoined, with acid sweetness; "and I should still have to take care of
myself."
Had he no sense of what was possible to leave unsaid to a woman? She was
very angry, though she was also a little sorry for him; for perhaps in
the long run he would be in the right. But he must pay for his present
stupidity.
"You wrong me," he answered, with a quick burst of feeling. "You are
most unfair. You punish me because I do my public duty; and because I
would do anything in the world for you, you punish me the more. Have you
forgotten two years ago? Is it so easy to your hand, a true and constant
admiration, a sincere homage, that you throw it aside like--"
"Monsieur De la Riviere," she said, with exasperating deliberation, her
eyes having a dangerous light, "your ten minutes is more than up.
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