“And because I will not cringe and fawn upon the lowbred creature you have made your wife, although, unfortunately, the tie is not a legal one, you threaten to deprive me of the pittance sufficient for my support! Very well, I can go and work in Arnell & Grey’s tobacco factory. You will not consider it a disgrace for your niece to work there, as the woman you call your wife was an employee there for many years!” she burst out spitefully, her virago temper all aflame, and goading her to such rebellion that she actually shook her little jeweled fist in his face. She knew his good heart and generous nature so well that she believed she could defy him with impunity. He would not dare cast her helpless on the world, no matter what she did to him or the wife he idolized. But her insults to Pansy had struck a fire of rage in his nature, and, while his face whitened with pain and his eyes gleamed with anger, he turned on her, and said sternly: “Since you are so willing to earn your own support, I wash my hands of a most unwelcome burden! Go into a tobacco factory as soon as you please, and I hope you may be industrious enough to retain a position there as long as Pansy Laurens did!” With those words, the offended gentleman stalked out of the presence of Juliette, who comprehended instantly that she had gone too far in her spiteful defiance, and that she must either humiliate herself by apologizing or go to work, as she had threatened, to earn her own living. It did not take her a minute to decide which of these alternatives to choose, and as soon as the door banged to behind the irate colonel she jerked it open and flew swiftly down the corridor, arresting his quick footsteps by clasping both hands around his arm. “Oh, uncle, dear uncle, come back and forgive me! I am sorry I wounded your feelings. I did not mean it; but every one had deserted me, and I felt so miserable!” she panted eagerly, as she clung to his arm. He stopped short and looked suspiciously into her false face. “Where is Mrs. Wylde?” he asked. “Come back, and I will tell you. We might be overheard here,” she replied, looking uneasily down the length of the broad hotel corridor, and very unwillingly he accompanied her back to her room. Then she said: “Mrs. Wylde and Rosalind have gone back to Richmond, and I am here alone with my maid.” “She promised to chaperon you,” he said, frowning.