"Yes, I have, and I will say it. Wasn't it mean of you to be making up to another, and all the while—" She almost broke down here, for her voice faltered, but she presently rallied again and went on, scarcely knowing what she said, or how she said it, "And wasn't it mean of that Mary Burgess—"
"Silence!" shouted Walter, as much beside himself, as Sarah was beside herself. "If you knew as much of that—that young person as I do, you would be sorry for ever having had a hard thought of her. She is as much above me, to say nothing of other things that you don't know of—"
"As I am below you, you mean. Well, I always did hear it said of you that you would be sure to rise in the world, Walter Wilson, so no wonder you are looking above you," cried Sarah, with an attempt at witticism which was a lamentable failure, for she burst into a flood of hysterical tears.
Walter walked further away, partly perhaps to avoid seeing this sudden distress, and partly to recover himself. When he presently returned to where the damsel was yet standing, only the traces of tears remained.
"Let us talk over the matter coolly," he said, "and understand one another."
"Yes, it is all very well for you to say 'talk it over coolly' after going about taking away my character."
"Which I have not done," said Walter.
"You have, and you know it—writing to Mr. Rubric, and all, to find out what he had got to say against me. You can't deny that you did."
"I do not intend to deny it, Sarah. I told you just now that I wrote to him two months ago."
"And wasn't that mean?"