"And who is this enemy?" asked Naomi's father.
"It is Jasper Pennington," she cried, "the man by your side, a cowardly ruffian, a drunken swaggerer, and the companion of the vilest people in the country. We have sought to save her from him, John Penryn; and now, thank God, our work is done."
This she said with a tremor in her voice, as though she had been an injured woman.
"You know it is a lie!" I cried vehemently. "You know it to be a base lie!"
And this was all I could say, for the wily woman seemed to take all words from my mouth, save those of a blank denial to her wicked lies. Besides my heart sunk like lead as I saw how her words weighed with Naomi's father, and as though he saw everything in a new light.
"Let me see my child," he said at length, and after both Richard Tresidder and his mother had made themselves out to be the guardian angels of Naomi's life, while I had been plotting her destruction.
"You shall see her when he is gone," she said, pointing to me. "I can never consent for her to come here while that wretch is in the room." Whereupon John Penryn asked many questions, which they answered so cunningly that I was tongue-tied, and could say nothing except foolish, wild ejaculations.
"Go, Jasper Pennington," he said at length, "leave me here."
"No," I said; "I came to find Naomi, my love. I will see her before I go. She has promised to be my wife."