She said, 'You will not need to bring property of any kind to the common
estate; I neither look for it nor desire it. The generous thing for you
to do would be to give your daughter all you have, and come to me.'
'But, Lady Camper, if I denude myself or curtail my income--a man at his
wife's discretion, I was saying a man at his wife's mercy . . . !'
General Ople was really forced, by his manly dignity, to make this
protest on its behalf. He did not see how he could have escaped doing so;
he was more an agent than a principal. 'My wife's mercy,' he said again,
but simply as a herald proclaiming superior orders.
Lady Camper's brows were wrathful. A deep blood-crimson overcame the
rouge, and gave her a terrible stormy look.
'The congress now ceases to sit, and the treaty is not concluded,' was
all she said.
She rose, bowed to him, 'Good morning, General,' and turned her back.
He sighed. He was a free man. But this could not be denied--whatever the
lady's age, she was a grand woman in her carriage, and when looking
angry, she had a queenlike aspect that raised her out of the reckoning of
time.
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