‘I’m tired of novels,’ she replied, sighing.
‘So Yottle was with them?’ Rodman said musingly, a smile still on his face. ‘I wish I knew what terms they’ve come to with Eldon.’
‘I wish I could do something to pay out that woman!’ exclaimed Alice bitterly. ‘She’s at the bottom of it all. She hates both of us. Dick ‘ud never have gone against you but for her.’
Rodman, extended in the low chair at full length, fixed an amused look on her.
‘You’d like to pay her out, eh?’
‘Wouldn’t I just!’
‘Ha! ha! what a vicious little puss you are! It’s a good thing I don’t tell you everything, or you might do damage.’
Alice turned to him with eagerness.
‘What do you mean?’
He let his head fall back, and laughed with a drunken man’s hilarity. Alice persisted with her question.