"And the man?"
"There bain't a better in all Sussex and yet that perilous obstinate maid will hev none of he!"
"Because she may dislike the man!"
"Dis-like, what hev that to do with it, sir? Why should Betty dis-like Abram Lestwick—a man earning his thirty-five shillings a week and with a cottage to himself and all keen set as he be——?"
"I have seen the man and can understand her dislike for him. He lays in wait for her, outside the gates; she is afraid to venture out of nights because of this man, whom she fears and hates. And you, can you not understand the child's aversion for such a man as Lestwick, Mrs. Hanson?"
"That I cannot and will not! A proper man be Abram and rare grateful and glad any maid should be attracting the like of he!"
"Betty is neither glad nor grateful, she goes in fear of him, hates him and is terrified by the very thought of him—it would be death—do you understand, death to the girl to force her into a marriage so shocking! Why are you so keen for it? Why do you seek to drive her against her own natural inclinations, why—why?" Allan cried hotly.
She eyed him with cold disfavour. What business was all this of his, of young Mr. Homewood of Homewood Manor House? She would have looked on him with some suspicion, yet there was something so open in his face, his anger was so honest, that she could not, even if she would, suspect him of an interest in pretty Betty, that reflected no credit on him.
"Abram hev thirty-five shillings a week and——"
"And for thirty-five shillings a week you would force this child to marry a man she hates, you would wreck and ruin her life, you would drive her perhaps—God knows—to death—to suicide! Can't you understand that it is not mere dislike she feels for him, it is hate and terror! Thirty-five shillings a week!" He laughed aloud in scorn, he flung his head back, his face was flushed, his eyes bright, and Mrs. Hanson stared at him in wonderment and with something of anger too.