"Of course I do," rejoined the girl cheerfully.
"It does not seem like it."
Lesbia shrugged her shoulders. "What is the use of crying over spilt milk?" she asked. "My going about with a long face will not make George's position any the more endurable. Some day when his character has been cleared things will change."
"They will never change," said Mr. Hale coldly and severely. "Walker has committed a sordid crime, and can never marry you."
"I don't believe that he is guilty," retorted Lesbia deliberately. "And even if I grant for the sake of argument that he is, Miss Ellis does not seem to think that his guilt is a bar to his marriage with her."
"She's a love-sick fool."
"So am I."
"With this difference, that she can marry him and you can't. And talking of Miss Ellis," went on Hale, becoming more stern than ever; "I saw her in London and she told me that you had actually been to see her."
"Why not?" asked Lesbia defiantly. "That is no crime."
"It is an impertinence to see her and to talk to her as you did. Why did you go, Lesbia?"