“You intend to keep up your late relations with those persons?”
“I do.”
“You mean to marry the hussy?”
“I mean to marry the lady to whom you give that epithet. There are those who think it not quite safe for you to call other people names!”
She rose and came at him as if she would strike him. John stood motionless. Except a woman had a knife in her hand, he said, he would not even avoid a blow from her. “A woman can't hurt you much; she can only break your heart!” he said. “My mother would not know a heart when she had broken it!” he added.
He stood and looked at her.
She turned away, and sat down again. I think she felt the term of her power at hand.
“The man told you then, that, if you did not return immediately, I would get him into trouble?”
“He has told me nothing. I have not seen him for some days. I have been to London.”
“You should have contrived your story better: you contradict yourself.”