Nell drew a long breath of relief. Then she stood up.
“You have taken a great load off my mind,” said she, in a low, thankful voice. “I shall tell him when I see him. What shall I tell him?” she asked, with a sudden change to a little fear again.
“I should tell him, if I were you, that what he has seen—if he has seen anything—is not your affair, but that of the police. But at the same time, Nell, I wouldn’t be so unkind to the poor young fellow, if I were you. I was quite touched this evening by the way he spoke of you. I believe he would give his right hand for you, I do really. And although it is no business of mine, dear, I really think you are neglecting your opportunities of doing good in a true sense by not urging him to better things. Your influence might turn him into a good man, my dear, I do, indeed, believe.”
But Nell frowned haughtily.
“You are so good yourself, Miss Theodora, that you don’t know anything about people who are not like you. Jem has had plenty of opportunities to reform. It is by his own choice that he idles about instead of going to sea.”
“But it is to be near you, dear,” suggested the sentimental old maid. “I don’t mean to say the young man is, in any sense, your equal. But I think if you really cared for him—”
“But I don’t!” protested Nell, indignantly. “I have never thought about the creature, for a moment, except to wish he would go away from the place altogether. And if he has dared to say that I ever gave him the slightest encouragement—”
“He has not, he has not,” said the old maid, hastily. “He has never been anything but most humble and submissive.”
“In your presence,” added Nell, significantly. “But when he isn’t with you, he presumes to be rude, and even jealous. As if he had the slightest right to be jealous,” she added, angrily.
Miss Bostal’s lips tightened with disapproval.