“Who brought you here?”
“Kate did,” said Anne calmly. “Why, Sam, did you think I’ve lived with nothing better than what George Chappie and the papers told me of you? I’d a fancy for the truth, and it’s not a thing to get from men. Kate’s been a spy, like.”
“Has she!” he cried.
“She has, and you’ll bear no grudge for that. You’d have lived in a pig-sty and fed like a pig if I’d none sent Kate to do for you, but I’ve come myself this time. It looks summat beyond Kate.”
“But what’s happened? What is it?”
“You know better than me what it is. You’ve got folks talking of you and they’ve talked to Ada. Unfaithful, she told Kate, and she’s gone home to Peter’s.”
“She must come back,” said Sam.
“And why?” asked Anne. “Because folk talk? To stop their mouths?”
“No. Because I want her here. They’re talking, are they? Well, they can.”
Anne looked at him. “You don’t care if they do?”