"Yes. Obligations, my dear, that none of us can ever repay."
"It's intolerable!" said Anne.
"Is it? Wait till you know what the obligations are. That man you dislike so much stood by Walter when your friends the Eliotts, my child, turned their virtuous backs on him—when none of his own people, even, would lend him a helping hand. It was Lawson Hannay who saved him."
"Saved him?"
"Saved him. Moved heaven and earth to get him out of that woman's clutches."
Anne shook her head, and put her hands over her eyes to dispel her vision of him. Edith laughed.
"You can't see Mr. Hannay moving heaven?"
"No, really I can't."
"Well, I saw him. At least, if he didn't move heaven, he moved earth. When nothing else could shake her hold, he bought her off."
"Bought—her—off?"