“You are come so early,” said Ursula to Theodore, “that I suppose your news is especially disagreeable.”
“If so, it meets with a fitting welcome,” replied her visitor. “But you have guessed right. Ursula, you remember my telling you that the Hemel cottages by the Mill, the worst on the property, must come down, and you said they couldn’t?”
“You said they couldn’t,” interrupted Ursula. “Who was to pay for rebuilding them?”
“Well, whoever said it said wrong. They could. They have come down of themselves.”
“What?”
“One of the middle walls has given way during the night, and the three cottages are a wreck.”
“Oh, is any one hurt?” Ursula clinched her hands.
“Only you,” answered Helmont, with a sneer—not at her. “All the whole filthy rabble are encamped outside among their household goods swearing at you.”
Ursula sat silent for a moment. “They never paid any rent,” she said at last.
“No, of course not.”