_Bartlett._--"No, sir, I won't listen to you! I've listened too much! What right, I should like to know, have they to find this resemblance in me? And do they suppose that I'm going to be placated by being told that they treat me like a rogue because I look like one? It is a little too much. A man calls 'Stop thief' after me and expects me to be delighted when he tells me I look like a thief! The reparation is an additional insult. I don't choose to know that they fancy this infamous resemblance in me. Their pretending it is an outrage; and your reporting it to me is an offence. Will you tell them what I say? Will you tell this General Wyatt and the rest of his Bedlam-broke-loose, that they may all go to the"-- _Cummings._--"For shame, for shame! You outrage a terrible sorrow! You insult a trouble sore to death! You trample upon, an anguish that should be sacred to your tears!" _Bartlett_, resting his elbow on the corner of the piano.--"What--what do you mean, Cummings?" _Cummings._--"What do I mean? What you are not worthy to know! I mean that these people, against whom you vent your stupid rage, are worthy of angelic pity. I mean that by some disastrous mischance you resemble to the life, in tone, manner, and feature, the wretch who won that poor girl's heart, and then crushed it; who--Bartlett, look here! These are the people--this is the young lady--of whom my friend wrote me from Paris: do you understand?" _Bartlett_, in a dull bewilderment.--"No, I don't understand." _Cummings._--"Why, you know what we were talking of just before they came in: you know what I told you of that cruel business." _Bartlett._--"Well?" _Cummings._--"Well, this is the young lady"-- _Bartlett_, dauntedly.--"Oh, come now! You don't expect me to believe that! It isn't a stage-play." _Cummings._--"Indeed, indeed, I tell you the miserable truth." _Bartlett._--"Do you mean to say that _this_ is the young girl who was jilted in that way? Who--Do you mean-- Do you intend to tell me-- Do you suppose--Cummings"-- _Cummings._--"Yes, yes, yes!" _Bartlett._--"Why, man, she's in Paris, according to your own showing!" _Cummings._--"She was in Paris three weeks ago. They have just brought her home, to help her hide her suffering, as if it were her shame, from all who know it. They are in this house by chance, but they are here. I mean what I say. You _must_ believe it, shocking and wild as it is."