The Price He Paid — page 70: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

LIVING 1N REBELLION. 61 I can forgive open defiance. Hypocrisy and syste- matic scheming I could not have forgiven you at your age. Thank God, the faulty education has not done so much as I feared.” He took her hand quietly, as though nothing un- usual had happened, drew her down on to the bench, and seated himself by her. | Gabrielle made a little attempt to move away from him. “Stay! you must allow me to meet your declara- tion of war with an answer in due form,” said the baron. “ Your mother will not share in the hostili- ties; at least, not openly. I am sure she has en- joined it on you as a duty to be amiable and eracious in your manner toward the parvenu.” “What do you mean?’ asked the girl, in con- fusion. “Well, the term cannot be unfamiliar to you. It was, I believe, the special designation accorded to me in your father’s house.” This time Gabrielle bravely met the look which rested on her face. “TI know my parents had no love for you,” she an- swered. “How could they? You had never been anything but hostile to them.” “JT to them, or they to me? but no matter, it comes to the same. These are things whereof you, Gabrielle, are not yet qualified to judge. You have no notion what itis for aman holding an inferior position, such as mine then was, to enter an eminently aristocratic family and the high social sphere in which that family moved. In those circles I had then, and have had since, but one friend, your grandfather. With every one else I had to win my place by force of conquest; and there are but two ways to this end. Either the as- pirant must bow his head and meekly submit to all such humiliations as are showered on a parvenu— he must either show himself deeply sensible of the honor conferred on him, and content himself with being tolerated—and to this my nature was not suited—or he must boldly usurp the master’s place, assert an authority over the whole clique, show Eomichboo KS (e(o)