“I forget nothing,” said Doctor Charley sturdily. “But I think that if the Barrys had been good, true-hearted women, they would not have crossed the seas to hunt down a poor girl who had committed a fault through love, that no intermeddling of theirs could set straight. Much better have let it all alone.”
Cecil stared at him in surprise and displeasure.
“I must have found it out sometime—when I went home if not sooner,” he said.
“Poor Molly would never have let you find it out—women are so clever—but they took her by surprise,” Doctor Charley returned.
“I wanted to know if there was anything wrong! I do not fancy being deceived,” sternly.
Doctor Charley looked almost contemptuously.
“So you thank the Barrys for your misery,” he said dryly. “Very well, call on them by all means then, and thank them for their friendship, in having put asunder what God had joined together. Perhaps things will come out so that you will get the real Louise Barry for your wife at last. I have no doubt that old woman and her niece will help you to torture poor Molly into an early grave.”
“Charley?” rebukingly.
“Well?”
“What have I done that you should be so hard on me in my trouble?”