‘Don’t fear!’
‘Can you tell me you think she has done no harm to my girl?’
‘To Nesta herself?—not any: not to a girl like your girl.’
‘To my girl’s name? Speak at once. But I know she has. She induced Nesta to go to her house. My girl was insulted in this woman’s house.’
Dartrey’s forehead ridged with his old fury and a gust of present contempt. ‘I can tell you this, that the fellow who would think harm of it, knowing the facts ‘s not worthy of touching the tips of the fingers of your girl.’
‘She is talked of!’
‘A good-looking girl out riding with a handsome woman on a parade of idlers!’
‘The woman is notorious.’ Nataly said it shivering.
He shook his head. ‘Not true.’
‘She has an air of a lady?’