The act of tossing the distasteful food into the fire had been purely involuntary; her conscious mind had hardly taken cognizance of the fact.

"No offence intendedpurely involuntary on my part.

"You do me no more than justice," returned the pleased listener of this flattering and seemingly involuntary opinion"we are indeedindeed we are truly grateful; but had we not reason for the sacred obligations of gratitude, I think we could still be just.