“Good heavens, your grace, I shouldn’t wish to rile your temper!” she said with deliberately exaggerated alarm. “Were I to do that, I might suffer a horrible fate at your hands. Let me think, now—what dire things could you do to me? I know! You might compromise my reputation. No,” she continued as if considering the matter impartially, “you couldn’t do that because you compromised it beyond recall when you forced me to stay with you at
