“That is hardly the point,” he said, “although I doubt if there is any point he’d stick at your doing to save him.”
“I can’t agree with you,” she said; “but may I ask what all this is leading up to? I’d rather you said plainly what you have to say.”
“Tell me plainly one thing, and I’ll speak straight enough,” he said. “But I won’t unless you satisfy me that there is need for me to prove to you that Steve Knight is a cur and a blackguard.”
That roused her, as he meant it should.
“Steve Knight is more to me than any man will be till I become his wife,” she said hotly. “And so you can understand what I think of a man who uses such words about him—behind his back.”
“I thought so,” he said sadly; “and God knows I’ve no wish to hurt you. But I’m saying nothing about him behind his back I would not say to his face. I’ll do so before the night is over if you like. But, whatever he may be to you, I think I know you well enough to know that when you have heard all I can tell of him you will fling him out of your mind, and that you’ll use worse words to him than I’ve done.”
“This is all rather idle,” she said scornfully. “I am not likely to believe anything you may say against him. You have given me reasons for wishing to lower him in my estimation. You cannot do so.”
“We’ll see,” he said coolly. “I don’t want to hark back and rake up the past records, and the name that Steve Fly-by-Night has here and round about. But perhaps I ought to warn you that although he has many friends, there are none who will deny that his—well, say—inconstancy to his fair ladies is notorious.”
“That may all be,” she said, with white lips; “but that is all past, and if I choose to overlook it, it leaves little room for others to speak.”
“If it were all past——” said Ned, significantly; then roughly, “See here, Ess, I won’t hint and beat about the bush. I’ve got to speak out, whether you like it or not. Steve Knight is living close to here at this moment, and—he is living with a woman.”