"It was not your fault," Deane answered. "Good-day, Miss Rowan!"
She looked at him for a moment, but she did not offer to take his outstretched hand. He smiled, and withdrew it at once.
"Good-day, Mr. Deane!" she said.
The door closed behind him. Rowan was watching his sister anxiously. "Winifred," he said, "what is the matter with you? You were scarcely civil to Mr. Deane."
"Oh! I think I was," she answered. "In any case, we don't want to take alms from him, do we?"
"It isn't exactly that," Rowan objected.
"It is."
"He can afford it," Rowan declared. "He is very rich. A thousand pounds to him is like sixpence to us."
"It doesn't alter facts," she rejoined. "I do not like Mr. Deane, Basil. It is through him that this trouble has come upon us. You have taken enough of his money."
"And when I am gone?" he asked. "What about you then?"