“You know very well, Bertha.”
“Why! Whatever do you mean? What have I done?”
“What haven’t you done? You’ve—you’ve broken my heart.”
“Good gracious me! Whatever are you talking about? Tell me what it is, Mary?”
“You met him at your gate that night?”
“I know I did.”
“Oh, Bertha! How could you be so mean and deceitful?”
“Mean and deceitful! What do you mean by that? Whatever are you talking about? I suppose I’ve got as good a right to meet him as anyone else.”
“No, you haven’t,” retorted Mary, “you’re only stringing him on. You only did it to spite me. You helped him to deceive me. You ought to be ashamed to look me in the face.”
“Good gracious! Whatever are you talking about? Ain’t I good enough for him! I ought to be, God knows! I suppose he can marry who he likes, and if I’m poor fool enough to love him and marry him, what then? Mary, you ought to be the last to speak—speak to—to me like that.”