He took a deep breath.
Here she tacitly confessed to all that he had declared. She did not even confirm it in words, but granted it and proceeded with the argument. And yet his whole theory had been built upon presumption. If she had denied the truth, he possessed no shadow of power to prove it.
"If ever I pitied anybody, I pity you; and I admire you in a sort of left-handed way. You're a very uncommon creature to have hid it in the face of such a village as Shaugh Prior."
"What I am he made me. He was a man in ten thousand."
"I hope he was. Leave him. Let me say this afore we get on. I don't judge you and, God knows it, I'm alive to this thing from your point of view. You loved him well enough even for that. But there's no will. He had nothing to leave; therefore—unless you've saved money during his lifetime——?"
"I don't want you to have anything to do with my affairs, Mr. Baskerville."
"As you please. But there are your children to be considered. Now it may very much surprise you to know that I have thought a lot about them. Should you say, speaking as an outsider, that I'm under any obligation to serve them?"
The sudden and most unexpected question again startled the blood from Mrs. Lintern's heart.
"What a terrible curious man you are! What a question to ask me!" she said.
"Answer it, however—as if you wasn't interested in it."