'
Vandeloup would have refused, but she had his arm, and as everyone
was looking at him, he could not refuse without being guilty of
marked discourtesy. Kitty had beaten him with his own weapons, so,
with a half-admiring glance at her, he took her back to the ball-
room, where the waltz was just ending.
'At all events,' he said in her ear, as they went smoothly gliding
round the room, 'you won't be able to do any mischief with it now to
yourself or to anyone else.'
'Won't I?' she retorted quickly; 'I have some more at home.'
'The deuce!' he ejaculated.
'Yes,' she replied, triumphantly; 'the bottle I got that belonged to
you, I put half its contents into another. So you see I can still do
mischief, and,' in a fierce whisper, 'I will, if you don't give up
this idea of marrying Madame Midas.'
'I thought you knew me better than that,' he said, in a tone of
concentrated passion. 'I will not.'
Then I'll poison her,' she retorted.
'What, the woman who has been so kind to you?'
'Yes, I'd rather see her dead than married to a devil like you.'
'How amiable you are, Bebe,' he said, with a laugh, as the music
stopped.
'I am what you have made me,' she replied, bitterly, and they walked
into the drawing-room.
After this Vandeloup clearly saw that it was a case of diamond cut
diamond, for Kitty was becoming as clever with her tongue as he was.
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