“Well, we won’t dispute about that.”
“Don’t be so foolish, Richard!” cried Patty, pouting.
“There, don’t be crabby. I was only joking, you know that well enough.”
“Go on with what you were about to say.”
“Old Nettlethorpe’s been robbed.”
“Never! Why it will kill him.”
“Oh, you may well say that. He’s been robbed, house broken into, strong-box opened, and all the money he and his amiable sister had stinted themselves of, for I don’t know how many years, gone in one night. Think of that.”
“Well you do surprise me,” returned Patty. “Poor fellow, it is cruel though, most cruel of anyone to take a man’s all.”
“It is, you are quite right; but do you know people—a goodish many—say that it serves the beggarly screws right? They starved themselves, and worse than that starved their servants and watered the men’s beer at harvest time.”
“So father used to say.”