“It’s perfectly true.” Coral eyed her steadily.
“You’ve no right to say such a beastly thing about him. I won’t allow it.”
“All right, dearie. Have it your own way. But it’s true, and you know it’s true, else you wouldn’t be so hopping mad.”
“Now listen to me, Coral,” Laura tried to be calm and forbearing. “I’m not angry with you. I only want you to understand. You’re unjust. You don’t know how good Justin is. It’s dreadful to accuse him of—of——” she hesitated. Then she tried again. “Oh, surely,” she protested, “you know his little ways by now.”
“Oh, I know ’em,” Coral laughed.
“Yes, but you’ve no right to laugh like that.” Then, disarmingly, “Oh, I understand, of course. But Justin—he hasn’t the faintest idea that he isn’t always nice to you. He’d be horrified. He’d be hurt. Because I know he tries to be jolly to you in his own way.”
“Isn’t it kind of him?” said Coral.
Laura stamped.
“I won’t talk to you. You’re impossible. Just because he’s not a man of words! You wait till you’re in a hole, that’s all, then you’ll see.”
Coral turned on her fiercely.