‘I have plenty to do and to think of,’ says Ethel, ‘and I never want company whilst I am with my little Katie.’
She is determined to take neither pity nor advice from the woman who is so anxious to join the colonel again.
‘I am glad to hear you say so,’ replied Mrs Lawless, somewhat timidly, ‘because it makes it easier for me to tell you that I am afraid I must leave you. I daresay you will think me very foolish, but I am too nervous to remain any longer at Mandalinati. I have not slept a wink for the last three nights. I must go back to Jack.’
‘Oh! you must go back to Jack!’ repeats Mrs Dunstan, with a sneer at Mrs Lawless. ‘I hate duplicity! Why can’t you tell the truth at once?’
‘Mrs Dunstan! What do you mean?’
‘I mean that I know why you are going back to Mudlianah as well as you do yourself. It’s all very well to lay it upon “Jack,” or this ridiculous ghost; but you don’t deceive me. I have known your treachery for a long time past. It is not “Jack” you go back to cantonment for—but my husband, and you are a bad, wicked woman.’
‘For your husband!’ cried Cissy Lawless, jumping to her feet. ‘How dare you insult me in this manner! What have I ever done to make you credit such an absurdity?’
‘You may call it an absurdity, madam, if you choose, but I call it a diabolical wickedness. Haven’t you made appointments with him, and walked at night in the garden with him, and done all you could to make him faithless to his poor, trusting wife? And you a married woman, too. You ought to be ashamed of yourself!’
‘Mrs Dunstan, I will not stand this language any longer. I flirt with your husband!—a man old enough to be my father! You must be out of your senses! Why, he must be fifty if he’s a day!’
‘He’s not fifty,’ screams Ethel, in her rage. ‘He was only forty-two last birthday.’