“Even if it hed been ten times the truth, it should hev been a lie to thee. Thou ought to hev felled it, even on the lips speaking it. I think nothing of love and friendship that won’t threep for a friend, right or wrong, for or against, true or untrue. I am varry much disappointed in thee, Mr. Harry Bradley, and the sooner thou leaves me, the better I’ll be pleased.”
“Oh, Madam, you utterly confound me.”
“Thou ought to be confounded and I would be a deal harder on thee if I did not remember that thou hes no family behind thee whose honor——”
“Madam, I have my father behind me, and a nobler man does not exist. He is any man’s peer. I know no other man fit to liken him to.”
“That’s right. Stand by thy father. And remember that the Annis family hes to stand up for a few centuries of Annis fathers. Go to thy father and bide with him. His advice will suit thee better than mine.”
“I think Dick might have understood me.”
“Dick understood thee well enough. Dick was heart hurt by thy evident pleasure with the news that was like a hot coal in thy mouth. It pleased thee so well thou couldn’t keep it for a fitting hour. Not thou! Thy vanity will make a heart ache for my niece, no doubt she will be worried beyond all by thy behavior, but I’ll warrant she will not go outside her own kith and kin for advice or comfort.”
“Madam, forgive my ignorance. I ask you that much.”
“Well, that is a different thing. I can forgive thee, where I couldn’t help thee—not for my life. But thou ought to suffer for such a bit of falsity, and I hope thou wilt suffer. I do that! Now I can’t stay with thee any longer, but I do wish thou hed proved thysen more right-hearted, and less set up with a probability. In plain truth, that is so. And I’ll tell the one sure thing—if thou hopes to live in Yorkshire, stand by Yorkshire ways, and be leal and loyal to thy friends, rich or poor.”
“I hope, Madam, to be leal and loyal to all men.”