"Oh no, indeed! Our friendship is quite over, and you are not to come near Windward House again."
"What's it all about, Nellie?"
"You know perfectly well. I'm walking with you this evening just to hear what you have to say."
"You think I'm a bad lot?"
"I'm getting dreadfully certain of it."
"Because you've heard tales. I know you'm the prettiest maid in the world, but if a stranger wur with us he wouldn't believe me if I said so, vor 'tis too dark to see you. You can't be sure of anything you'm told. I'm not the best chap in the world by a long way, but if you could see me 'just as I am,' as we wur singing in church just now, you might fancy I b'ain't quite what folks make me out to be."
Nellie was disturbed by this speech, and still more by the manner in which it was uttered. She had an uncomfortable feeling that Sidney was trying to bring himself down to her level, although her birth and education were undoubtedly superior to his.
"I suppose it's easy to sing like that, especially as you must have had no end of practice," she said crossly.
"Now you'm out o' tune, Nellie."
"Miss Blisland has discovered you have made a fool of her. You asked her to—to—well, you know what, when all the time you are married—"