Turner shook his head.
“Then it will be so,” persisted the lady, “or as I said before, both woman and child must leave the estate.”
“You cannot be in earnest!” said Turner.
“Does it seem like earnest when you find me here at this hour of the morning?” replied the lady.
“But it was Lord Clare’s desire—his command—that I hold authority in this house until his return,” persisted Turner.
“He mentions nothing of this in his letters to us. Besides, you cannot mean to say that he has made such provisions for these females.”
“No, Zana was not here at the time; but I know, I am sure”——
“Be sure of nothing!” exclaimed Lady Catherine, with more energy than she had yet exhibited—“be sure of nothing, if you love your master, but that you can serve him best by silencing this subject of public gossip at once. Marry the woman with whom you have been so long domesticated!”
“Marry!” exclaimed Turner, with a terrible twist of the face, as if the word had not really come home to his heart till then, “marry at this time of life, and a Spanish woman. Wouldn’t it do as well, my lady, if they set me in the pillory for an hour or so!”
“It might not do so well for the girl, perhaps,” was the stern reply.