"Miss Huxham"—Pence detained her by laying his thin fingers on her arm—"if you marry this man Lister"—he kept to this sentence as though it were a charm—"you will be a pauper."
She flashed up into a royal rage and stamped. "How dare you say that?"
"I dare tell the truth."
"It is not the truth. How can you tell if——"
"Your father told me," insisted the preacher, hotly.
Bella withdrew a step or so, her eyes growing round with surprise. "My—father—said—that?"
"Yes, yes, yes!" cried Silas feverishly. "I went to him this very afternoon to ask permission to present myself to you as a suitor. He consented, but only when he heard that you loved this man who——"
"You told him that?" demanded Bella, her breath coming quick and short.
"Yes," said Pence, trying to be courageous, "and it is true."
"Who says that it is?"