'Why? Because she made you jump so. You couldn't have jumped more if you had thought it was a ghost. I won't have your flesh being made to creep.'
'But it crept much worse when I heard the things you said to her.'
'Nonsense. These people have to be kept in order. What did the woman mean by coming in like that?'
'Why, you told her to bring us coffee.'
'But I didn't tell her to make an infernal noise by dropping spoons all over the place.'
'That was because she got just as great a fright when she saw us as I did when I heard her.'
'I don't care what she got. Her business is not to drop things. That's what I pay her for. But look here—don't you go thinking such a lot of tangled-up things and arguing. Do, for goodness sake, try and be simple.'
'I feel very simple,' said Lucy, smiling and putting out her hand to him, for his face was clouding. 'Do you know, Everard, I believe what's the matter with me is that I'm too simple.'
Wemyss roared, and forgot how near he was getting to being hurt. 'You simple! You're the most complicated——'
'No I'm not. I've got the untutored mind and uncontrolled emotions of a savage. That's really why I jumped.'