“The whole place is saying it by now.”
“Then it was you that put the lie into their mouths.—Oh, how I've always hated you!” she cried.
She had expected a retort in kind, and it startled her to hear her exclamation sounding on through silence.
“Yes, I know,” Mr. Royall said slowly. “But that ain't going to help us much now.”
“It helps me not to care a straw what lies you tell about me!”
“If they're lies, they're not my lies: my Bible oath on that, Charity. I didn't know where you were: I wasn't out of this house last night.”
She made no answer and he went on: “Is it a lie that you were seen coming out of Miss Hatchard's nigh onto midnight?”
She straightened herself with a laugh, all her reckless insolence recovered. “I didn't look to see what time it was.”
“You lost girl... you... you.... Oh, my God, why did you tell me?” he broke out, dropping into his chair, his head bowed down like an old man's.
Charity's self-possession had returned with the sense of her danger. “Do you suppose I'd take the trouble to lie to YOU? Who are you, anyhow, to ask me where I go to when I go out at night?”