“Come, this is more like,” said the other clapping his hands in mock approval. “Now you'll feel better, eh? And now you'll tell me how you worked it, I'm sure.”
Missy said what she would do instead.
“Then I must just tell myself. Let's see now: your father—ha! ha!—was old Teesdale's old friend, and luckily for you he'd warned them his daughter was something out of the common. That was luck! And you were out of the common! Hasn't 'Bella told me the things you said and did, till I was sick and tired? Faith, I'd have listened better if I'd dreamt it was you! I remember her saying you brought a letter of introduction, however; and that you must have stole, my beauty!”
Missy cleared her throat. “You're a liar,” she said. “I found it.”
“You found it! That's a lot better, isn't it? A fat lot! Anyhow, out you came, to pose as my young lady from Home till further orders. And my oath, it was one of the cheekiest games I've heard of yet!”
“I only came out for a lark,” Missy said sullenly. “It was they that put it into my head to come back and stay. I couldn't help it. It was better here than in Melbourne. Much better!”
“Morally, eh?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, this is a cleaner life than t'other—what?”
“It is. Thank God!”