“Marry!”
The word seemed to cause an explosion in the girl seated at his feet.
“I loathe men, I loathe all of them. I wish that I could never see another man in the whole of my life!”
She spoke with a repressed vehemence and then was surprised to hear the Marquis laugh. She looked at him in astonishment and he said quietly,
“Forgive me for I am not being rude. You were merely echoing the words I myself was saying just before you came into the room, but with the slight difference that I was speaking of women while you are speaking of men!”
“You hate women?” she asked slowly, as if she found it hard to credit.
“I have recently conceived a violent dislike of your whole s*x,” the Marquis asserted.
“You are not married?”
“Not at the moment,” he replied grimly.
She was silent a moment a
