Milly placed her hand upon his lips.
"You're a liar, Oysterman!" she said, quietly. "The girl is his wife."
Grif took Milly's hand, and kissed it again and again for the vindication.
The Tenderhearted Oysterman turned sharply upon Milly, and was about to answer her when Jim Pizey said,--
"Milly's right. The girl is his wife. You don't know everything, Oysterman. But now I'll tell you that that girl is the daughter of Old Nuttall, the rich squatter of Highlay Station. Dick Handfield was living on the Station for a goodish time--that's how he came to know all about it. The girl fell in love with him, and they ran away and got married."
"And a pretty nice thing she made of it!" sneered the Oysterman. "I hate these milk-sop women!"
"I wonder what sort of a woman you'd ever be fond of, Oysterman!" said Milly, with bitter sarcasm. "I wonder if you'd ever get a woman to love you, and think you a model of anything but what's mean!"
"Serve you right, Oysterman," said Jim, laughing. "Never you speak against women when a woman is by."
The Tenderhearted Oysterman had turned white in the face when Milly spoke.
"You're a nice sort of woman, you are," he exclaimed, with a snarl. "I'd never want you to love me and think me a model."