"Let it be so," said Miser Farebrother. "Phœbe, I will take tea with you and your friends."
"Oh, papa!" In her gratitude the affectionate girl—only too ready to give love for love—threw her arms round her father's neck and kissed him.
"There! there!" he said, pushing her away; "go down to your friends. You can stop, Mrs. Pamflett."
Phœbe ran down-stairs to convey the good news to the Lethbridges, and Mrs. Pamflett and the miser were left together.
"Now, Mrs. Pamflett," he said abruptly, "what is all this about?"
"I do not understand you," was her reply.
"You understand me thoroughly," he said. "I can't see through a millstone, but I can see through you."
"Then why do you ask me to explain anything?" she retorted.
"You have lived here sixteen years," he said, "and you think you know me as well as I am sure I know you. Because I have never interfered with you, because I have allowed you to do as you like——"
She interrupted him here. "Have I ever wasted a penny of your money?"