"Step in. The train is going."
"Not into that carriage--with you. Others are in it, and I might be saying things that they would stare at. My temper is up, today."
"First class, miss?" cried an impatient porter "There's only that there one first-class carriage on."
And Mary Jupp walked away; opened the door of another, which was a third-class, and took her seat in it.
Thus they reached Katterley. Mr. Lake came to the carriage to assist her out, but she simply put his arm away. Her face looked awfully severe as the gaslights fell upon it.
"One moment," he said, arresting her as she was passing. "I do not know what turn your suspicions can have taken; a very free one, as it seems to me. Let me assure you that you are mistaken. On my word of honour as a man there has been nothing; nothing wrong. In justice to Lady Ellis I am bound to say this."
"Justice to Lady Ellis! Don't talk to me about justice to Lady Ellis," was the young lady's retort. Her temper, as she said, was up, that day. "Think of justice to your wife, rather. You are either a fool or a knave, sir."
"Thank you, Miss Jupp."
"Nothing wrong!" she repeated, returning to the charge. "I don't know what you mean. What do you call wrong? You have been tied to that woman's skirts these five months; lavishing your money and your time upon her; and leaving your wife alone to die. If that's not wrong, I should like to know what is."
He made no reply; almost too confounded to do it.