’Oh! I assure you he does not soil his fingers with honest trade or business.’
After a pause, during which neither spoke, Philip resumed. ’There are subjects that are distasteful to me; this is one.’
’I see,’ said Miss Durham, ’you are a Radical.’
’We will let the subject drop,’ said Philip. ’This air is delightful to me after the smoke of a Yorkshire manufacturing district.’
’It is really surprising how fresh, notwithstanding, your wife is,’ answered the Chicago lady.
Philip turned sharply round and looked at her. ’Fresh!’ he repeated. He did not understand what her meaning was—fresh in complexion, or that her character was green and raw.
’Her freshness is quite delightful,’ added the lady.
Then Philip’s anger broke loose. He was offended at any remark being made on Salome by a person of whom he knew nothing.
’Indeed—perhaps so. And it is precisely this freshness, this generosity of mind, this ignorance of the world, which leads her to extend the hand of fellowship to—to anyone—to those who may not be as fresh as herself—who may be quite the reverse.’
Miss Durham stood still, her face gleamed with anger.
’I know, sir, very well what you mean. You know that I am alone, without a man—a father, brother or husband by to protect me from insult, and you take this advantage to address me thus.’
She revolved on her heel and walked hastily back to the hotel. Philip stood rooted to the spot.
What had he done? What shadow of a right had he to address an inoffensive girl with such impertinence? A girl who had done him no harm, and of whom he knew nothing, and who, for aught he knew to the contrary, might be as respectable, high-minded, and well-connected as the best lady in America. She had been alone in this foreign corner, shut out from social intercourse with her fellow-countrymen, and she had formed an acquaintance with his wife, his wife’s sister, and the Labarte girls. What right had he to step in and thrust her out of association with them?
He had done what he determined, but done it in so clumsy a manner as to put himself in the wrong, make himself who stood on punctilio appear an unlicked bear. He had behaved to an unprotected, young, and beautiful girl in a manner that would have disgraced the rudest artisan, in a manner that he knew not one of his honest Yorkshire workmen in his factory would have dared to behave.