The brooding man put his face in his hands; and there was a long silence.
He roused after a little while and went on again:
“She says that you, if you stay here, may win the regard of my boy Horace—she says that it would be worse than Miss Sally Ornce.”
For a moment Betty thought wearily that he referred to the allurements of some rival lady. It suddenly came to her that the poor fellow meant mésalliance.
The clumsy man gazed miserably out of the window:
“I don’t know what in God’s wonder to do,” he said.
The girl bowed:
“I understand,” she said. “I will go.”
She went and shook hands with him; and quietly left the room....
The two ladies, straining their ears at the door that stood slightly ajar into the next room, were edified.