"You
have not yet forgiven me that the duke, your husband, found more
delight in my young, handsome face, than in yours, now growing old--
that my sprightly, wanton disposition pleased him better than your
cold, stately air."
The duchess turned pale with rage, and her eyes darted lightning.
"Silence, you shameless creature! silence, or I will call my
servants to rid me of you!"
"You will not call them; for I have come to be reconciled with you,
and to offer you peace."
"Peace with you!" sneered the duchess--"peace with that shameless
woman who stole from me my husband, the father of my children?--who
loaded me with the disgrace of standing before the whole world as a
repudiated and despised wife, and of suffering myself to be compared
with you, that the world might decide which of us two was worthier
of his love? Peace with you, Miss Holland?--with the impudent
strumpet who squanders my husband's means in lavish luxury, and,
with scoffing boldness, robs my children of their lawful property?"
"It is true, the duke is very generous," said Miss Holland,
composedly. "He loaded me with diamonds and gold."
"And meanwhile I was doomed almost to suffer want," said the
duchess, grinding her teeth.
"Want of love, it may be, my lady, but not want of money; for you
are very magnificently fitted up; and every one knows that the
Duchess of Norfolk is rich enough to be able to spare the trifles
that her husband laid at my feet.
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