“No, not at all; she shouldn't have been kicked out, anyway. I'd have given her time and then driven her back to Melbourne, with all her things. What right have we with them, I should like to know?”
“She wanted us to keep them, she——”
“Wanted us! I'd have let her want, if I'd been here. However, go on. She was sorry I wasn't there, was she?”
“Well, at first she said so, but in a little while she told me that she was glad. And after that she said I didn't know how glad she was for you never to set eyes on her again!”
“Never's a long time,” muttered John William.
“Did she explain herself?” he added, as loud as they ventured to speak.
“Y—yes.” Arabella was hesitating.
“Then out with it!”
“She told me—it can't be true, but yet she did tell me—that you—fancied yourself in love with her, John William!”
“It isn't true.”