"I bean't blushing, grandmother."
"And now 'ee be lying as well, Betty Hanson."
Betty hung her head.
"Very distrustful and uneasy I be in my mind, very distrustful. Betty Hanson, look me in the eye and answer me this: what be there between 'ee and Mr. Allan Homewood?"
"Oh! oh grandmother—there——" Betty was silent, she pressed her hands against her breast. "Be-between I and Mr. Homewood grandmother, what—what should there be?"
"There should be nothing Miss, but there be! there be, I see it. What be he to thee?"
"Nothing, nothing, nothing. Oh grandmother, why do 'ee worry I so? I wish—I wish—I hadn't come!"
"If so be as your mind were at rest and your conscience clear, Betty Hanson, 'ee wouldn't hev said that! Now answer, answer me and speak the truth for I be your dead father's mother and your only living relative I be. What be Mr. Allan Homewood to 'ee?"
"Nothing," the girl whispered, "he bain't nothing to I—nothing, and if anyone hev told 'ee contrairywise he be a liar!"
"The truth I will hev! nor shall 'ee leave this place——"