“Nothing of the sort!” stoutly maintained Captain Gooster. “Love—nothing but love! It was because I’d found out that it was ’er I really loved all the time that I broke it off with you. If Ann ’adn’t got a single penny coming to ’er—”
“And she ’asn’t!” said Mrs. Dobb, with emphasis.
“Trying to frighten me?” suggested the smiling captain. “Why, you admitted to me yourself that it was ’er that ’ad all the money!”
“So she ’ad,” returned Mrs. Gooster’s mother—“then!”
“What do you mean—then?” asked the captain, thickly.
“Why, it was all to be ’ers,” explained the new Mrs. Dobb, “unless she married without my consent. My ’usband arranged it like that to protect ’er from fortune ’unters, and very lucky ’e did, too! You needn’t shake your ’ead! It’s all quite true. ’Ere’s a copy of my ’usband’s will. I showed it to Dobb ’ere when ’e was trying to console me that evening after you’d left—you know, when you threw me over!”
“You—you knew when you advised me to—” roared the skipper, wheeling on Mr. Dobb.
“I did,” shamelessly admitted Mr. Dobb. “Part of it I worked out, and part of it worked itself out for me! You see, I—I ’appened to fall genuine in love with my new wife ’ere and—”
“You needn’t trouble to tell lies about it!” shouted the skipper.
“And don’t you roar at my ’usband like that, neither!” ordered the elder lady. “And I may as well tell you that I’d ’ave taken ’im if I ’ated ’im—I’d ’ave taken the first man what come along! Anything to let you see you wasn’t the only chance I’d got! And—”