Even my silence seemed to be a reproach, so I tried to think of something to say which would neither bear upon what she had done nor seem to avoid it.

After a moment or two, Betty, that is, thoughts of her, came to my relief, and I said:  “If Betty were at court, she would rival the best of the beauties.  There’s a charm about the girl which grows on one.  I have known her since she came from school in France, over a year ago, and the more I see of her the better I like her.  She has grace of person and manner, is well educated, tender of heart, honest, and has wonderful eyes.”

“And dimples,” suggested Frances.  “You might win her, Baron Ned.  I should like to see you do something foolish to bring you down to my level.”

There was a distinct note of sarcasm in her voice, and I felt sure that if I remained silent there was more to come.  I was not disappointed, for presently, after two or three false starts, she continued:—­

“I do not care to hear your comments on what I have just done.  I know quite as well in my simplicity as you in your wisdom the many good reasons why I should not have visited the Old Swan to-day.  I knew before I started, but I should have gone had the reasons been multiplied a thousand fold in number and cogency.  Therefore, I do not care to hear your comments on the subject.  I should have gone just the same had I feared that death awaited me.  I had but one purpose in life, and for weeks have had but one—­to see him.  If I was willing to put aside the love of my father and all other considerations dear to me, nothing that you can say will do you any good or be of advantage to me.”

“My dear Frances,” I replied, “I find no fault with you.  I am sorry you had to do it, but I know it could not be avoided.  You were helpless against an overpowering motive.  I am sorry for you, yet I admire you more than ever before, because of your recklessness.  I have always thought you were cold, or at least that you were wise enough to keep yourself cool, but now I know that beneath your beauty there is a soul that can burn, a heart that can yearn, and a reckless disregard of consequences that on occasion may make a blessed fool of you.  It is such women as you who keep alive the spark of Himself which God first breathed into man.  I do not blame you.  I pity you, and am lost in wondering what will come of it all.”

After a long pause, she spoke, sighing:  “Although you may not understand what I mean, there was a great deal of right as well as wrong in what I did.  I owed to his love, which I knew to be true, an acknowledgment of mine, but more, I had wronged him grievously, and it was right that I should make what poor amends I could.  But right or wrong, I did what I had to do, and I do not intend to blame myself, nor to hear blame from any one else.  I am perfectly willing that the whole world should know what I have done—­that is, I should be were it not for father.”