She laughed with embarrassment.
"It really isn't of any interest to you, but - " and again she paused.
"Suppose you let me be the judge of that," he suggested stiffly. "You're
making me horribly curious, you know. You can't very well drop the
subject now." He was evidently making an effort at pleasantry.
She flushed brightly.
"Of course it couldn't be of the slightest importance to anyone except
myself," she explained. Then, as if doubting her courage to continue
long, she hurried on, "but one reason I take such an interest in - your
work is because I'm a direct descendant of Lord Harold myself. He became
the Duke of Norfolk afterward, you know, but Hastings was always the
family name." She flashed him a haughty glance, a pride that changed to
wideeyed surprise as she noted his amazement.
"Not really?" He had turned abruptly and in his eyes there was a curious
expression, almost of alarm. "How extraordinary, - how perfectly
extraordinary!"
"Why extraordinary?" That her cup of humiliation might brim to the full,
resentment was added to confusion. "You consider me unworthy, then, of
having had nobility among my ancestry? But, just the same, there was
nothing strange about it. The colonies were chiefly English, you
remember!" He smiled at her sarcasm.
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