'Of course; I have no idea of going down to Plymouth as the man proposed, or of taking any steps to secure their absence.'
'Your money is your own, and you can do what you like with it. It certainly is not for me to advise you. If you tell me that you are going to pay it, I can only say that I shall look very sharp after them.'
'Why should you want to ruin your sister?'
'You have ruined her. That is our idea. We desire now to rescue her as far as we can from further evil. You have opposed us in every endeavour that we have made. When in the performance of a manifest duty we endeavoured to separate you till after the trial, you succeeded in thwarting us by your influence.'
'I left it to her.'
'Had you been true and honest and upright, you would have known that as long as there was a doubt she ought to have been away from you.'
'I should have sent her away?'
'Certainly.'
'So as to create a doubt in her mind, so as to disturb her peace, so as to make her think that I, having been found out, was willing to be rid of her? It would have killed her.'
'Better so than this.'